oddment

noun 5

Definitions

noun

1

A part of something that is left over, such as a piece of cloth.

an oddment of ribbon / of wood

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.

2

Something that does not match the things it is with or cannot easily be categorized; a miscellaneous item.

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.

3

An item that was originally part of a set but is sold individually; an excess item of stock.

[…] she pushed me inside a shop that sold oddments and seconds.

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.

4

A part of a book that is not a portion of the text, such as the title, index, etc. (usually plural).

5

A person who does not fit in with others or is considered to be strange in some way.

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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