odds and ends

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

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

• odds and sods
• See also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

Translations

miscellaneous things

• Armenian: թաշախուստ (tʻašaxust)
• Bashkir: ваҡ-төйәк (vaq-töyək)
• Breton: bitrakerezh m
• Burmese: တိုလီမိုလီ (my) (tuilimuili)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 瑣碎的事／琐碎的事

• Dutch: brokstukken (nl) n pl, van alles en nog wat
• Finnish: kama (fi), (colloquial) sälä (fi)
• French: bric-à-brac (fr) m or m pl
• Georgian: ნარჩენები (narčenebi), წვრილმანები (c̣vrilmanebi), ძველმანები (ʒvelmanebi)
• German: Krimskrams (de) m
• Haitian Creole: kenkay
• Hungarian: ez-az (hu), limlom (hu), apróságok (hu) pl
• Irish: giúirléidí f pl
• Italian: cianfrusaglie (it) f pl
• Latin: quisquilia f
• Manx: fooillagh
• Norwegian: ting og tang
• Persian: هنزر پنزر (henzer-penzer)
• Polish: pierdółki f pl, drobiazgi m pl
• Portuguese: miudezas f pl
• Russian: вся́кая вся́чина (ru) f (vsjákaja vsjáčina)
• Scottish Gaelic: criomagan f pl
• Serbo-Croatian: koještarija (sh) f
• Spanish: retazos (es) m pl, trastos (es) m pl
• Swedish: smått och gott n
• Volapük: jodem

See also

• bits and bobs