odds and ends

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noun

miscellaneous items, matters, etc.

fragments; remnants; scraps; bits.

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Origin of odds and ends

First recorded in 1740–50

Words nearby odds and ends

oddment, odd or even, odd permutation, odd-pinnate, odds, odds and ends, odds and sods, Oddsbodikins, oddside, oddsmaker, odds-on

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use odds and ends in a sentence

As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
As this list shows, punishments typically run to a short-ish jail sentence and/or a moderately hefty fine.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Via Dolorosa ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and is marked by nine stations of the cross.
Oops! Jesus’ Last Steps Are in the Wrong Place|Candida Moss|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The odds of getting re-arrested are a lot slimmer if a person has a job.
His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside|Justin Rohrlich|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Yes, Byrd—dead four-and-a-half years now—was a Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan.
Steve Scalise and the Right’s Ridiculous Racial Blame Game|Michael Tomasky|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Under the one-sixth they appear as slender, highly refractive fibers with double contour and, often, curled or split ends.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
Eggs and nestlings were found lying on the bare soil at the inner ends of the burrows; no nesting material was found.
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
The inner ends of the burrows were enlarged with a depression in the floor, where the eggs were laid.
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
She also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.|Clara Erskine Clement
No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift

British Dictionary definitions for odds and ends

odds and ends

pl n

miscellaneous items or articles

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with odds and ends

odds and ends

Miscellaneous items, fragments and remnants, as in I've finished putting everything away, except for a few odds and ends. This expression may have originated as odd ends in the mid-1500s, meaning “short leftovers of some material” (such as lumber or cloth). It had acquired its present form and meaning by the mid-1700s.

odds and ends

Origin of odds and ends

Words nearby odds and ends

Words related to odds and ends

How to use odds and ends in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for odds and ends

Other Idioms and Phrases with odds and ends