Wiktionary

odds and ends

English

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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odds and ends pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic) Miscellaneous things.
    The garage was filled with a random assortment of odds and ends.
    • 1895, Robert W. Chambers, chapter 2, in The King in Yellow, "The Mask":
      I scraped my palette, stuck my brushes in a bowl of black soap, and I strolled into the smoking-room. I really believe that, excepting Geneviève's apartments, no room in the house was so free from the perfume of tobacco as this one. It was a queer chaos of odds and ends hung with threadbare tapestry.

Synonyms

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Translations

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See also

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