Odds-and-ends meaning

Odds and ends refer to an assortment of things.

The random little things you throw in your suitcase when packing right before you leave, like dental floss, an extra sweater and an extra book to read on the plane, are all examples of odds and ends.

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Miscellaneous items, remnants, or pieces.
pluralNoun
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Scraps; remnants; oddments.
noun
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(idiomatic) Miscellaneous things.

The garage was filled with a random assortment of odds and ends.

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Origin of odds-and-ends

  • From an dialectal corruption of ords and ends (“points and endings" or "beginnings and ends"). More at ord, end.

    From Wiktionary

Odds-and-ends Sentence Examples

  • At the end of the Napoleonic wars Portugal had Macao and Goa, Holland Java, Sumatra and other islands, France some odds and ends in India, while England emerged with Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon and a free hand in India.

  • But in 1813 Baden joined the coalition, and since then that nation created of odds and ends (de brit et de broc) and always handsomely treated by us, had not ceased to take a leading part in the struggles against our country.

  • It will be seen that the compiler of the volume on which so much depends had to go back fully a century, with little else to guide him but odds and ends in the way of publications and tradition.

  • After her parents have taken out the gift items from the newborn baby gift baskets, they can use the storage cube to house books, toys, and other baby odds and ends.

  • Gifts are focused around the baby's needs, the nursery décor, and other odds and ends that are baby related.

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Words near odds-and-ends in the Dictionary