Noun
A part of something that is left over, such as a piece of cloth.
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an oddment of ribbon / of wood
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1926, Ronald Firbank, Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli, Chapter 6, in The Complete Ronald Firbank, Norfolk, CT: J. Laughlin, p. 667, ‘Ps! ps!’ she purred, feeling amorously for her scissors beneath the sumptuous oddments of old church velvet and brocade that she loved to ruffle and ruck.
Something that does not match the things it is with or cannot easily be categorized; a miscellaneous item.
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The Lahore Museum was larger, but here were more wonders—ghost-daggers and prayer-wheels from Tibet; […] gilt figures of Buddha, and little portable lacquer altars; Russian samovars with turquoises on the lid; […] arms of all sorts and kinds, and a thousand other oddments were cased, or piled, or merely thrown into the room, […]
[…] there in his hiding-place he kept a few wretched oddments, and one very beautiful thing, very beautiful, very wonderful.
[The chest] was filled with oddments of reference: large-scale maps, back copies of Who’s Who, old Baedekers.
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[…] a tall thin man with oddments of old armor buckled on over his ratty pink robes.
An item that was originally part of a set but is sold individually; an excess item of stock.
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[…] she pushed me inside a shop that sold oddments and seconds.
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Whoever had purchased this supply of arms had scoured all the darker bazaars of the international weapons market, buying a lot here, another lot there, an oddment in a third place.
A part of a book that is not a portion of the text, such as the title, index, etc. (usually plural).
A person who does not fit in with others or is considered to be strange in some way.
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Oh, I know for a fact that she’s loaned a fiver from the little oddment who has the floor under mine—
“Come on, you daft oddment,” […]
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Unlike his mother and sisters he’s not very outgoing and he’s an oddment, scrawny and muscular he has the look of a drover […]
A varied collection (of items).
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1862, Edward Bradley (as Cuthbert Bede), “The Agreeable Monk” in The Curate of Cranston; with Other Prose and Verse, London: Saunders, Otley, p. 281, […] there are two or three tables, where are newspapers, and some of the latest periodicals and reviews, and a miscellaneous oddment of the current sacred and profane literature, stacked for convenience of reference […]
[…] bearing a tray containing an oddment of cookies, cake, and sandwiches […]
“Since you won’t let my taxi in,” she says, “please let the driver bring out of the trunk of his taxi my oddment of purchases.”
A remaining number or amount (after a calculation).
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I’m your age treble [i.e. three times your age], with some oddments to’t,
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1877, Robert Roberts (ed.), The Apophthegmes of Erasmus Translated into English by Nicolas Udall, Boston, Lincolnshire: Robert Roberts, Appendix, p. 459, When they went to market, a basket of eggs was one of their most frequent charges, and in making their purchases at various shops the tradesman would often be asked “to take eggs for money” to a certain extent; especially when the sum to pay left an “oddment,” such as 4d. or 8d.
I believe he expected me to give him a receipt in round hundreds and take the “oddment,” as we call it in Warwickshire, for myself.
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[…] the agricultural year was divided up into eighteen periods of twenty days, with an oddment of five days at its end.
Of the surplus the bulk was invested, and an oddment swept into the borough fund.
Something strange or unusual.
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How did he come to join the cavalry? That was an oddment.
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[…] TV fosters many preferences that are quite at variance with literate uniformity and repeatability. It has sent Americans questing for every sort of oddment and quaintness in objects from out of their storied past. Many Americans will now spare no pains or expense to get to taste some new wine or food.
I thought it an oddment that Alifair, with all her powers and her healing meetings, had needed Ro, a sinner, to make her well.
Noun
a piece of cloth that is left over after the rest has been used or sold
- Broader terms
something unusual — perhaps worthy of collecting
- Broader terms