ODDS AND ENDS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does odds and ends mean? 

• ODDS AND ENDS (noun)
  The noun ODDS AND ENDS has 1 sense:

1. a motley assortment of things

  Familiarity information: ODDS AND ENDS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ODDS AND ENDS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A motley assortment of things

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

farrago; gallimaufry; hodgepodge; hotchpotch; melange; mingle-mangle; mishmash; oddments; odds and ends; omnium-gatherum; ragbag

Hypernyms ("odds and ends" is a kind of...):

assortment; miscellanea; miscellany; mixed bag; mixture; motley; potpourri; salmagundi; smorgasbord; variety (a collection containing a variety of sorts of things)

 Context examples 

Saturday morning it was "fancy starch," and odds and ends, and at three in the afternoon the week's work was done.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

—a ball of string, a letter-weight, and I don’t know what other odds and ends.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Odds and ends, some pipes, a few novels, two of them in Spanish, an old-fashioned pinfire revolver, and a guitar were among the personal property.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To complete his strange appearance, Captain Flint sat perched upon his shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It's too bad, for there is no time to make other things, and I don't want to fill up with odds and ends.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She shook her head decidedly, and Charles and Hal put the last odds and ends on top the mountainous load.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Amy did not come, Meg went to her room to try on a new dress, Jo was absorbed in her story, and Hannah was sound asleep before the kitchen fire, when Beth quietly put on her hood, filled her basket with odds and ends for the poor children, and went out into the chilly air with a heavy head and a grieved look in her patient eyes.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To find it was the task set him by an imperious and malignant universe, and he wandered through the endless corridors of his mind, opening all manner of lumber rooms and chambers stored with odds and ends of memories and knowledge as he vainly sought the answer.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)