Definition of "odd"

We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

Itm , lxij almond rivetts. *Almain rivetts, a sort of light armour having sleeves of mail, or iron plates, rivetted, with braces for the defence of the arms. / Itm, one odd back for an almond rivett.

1822, John Gage, The History and Antiquities of Hengrave, in Suffolk, page 29

"Here, I have some odd change that should make things easier." As Tish turned and reached for the cigarettes, Eric took some loose coins from his pocket and placed the change from the twenty into his other pocket.

2009, Sam O'Connor, Tales of Old Las Vegas: Inside are a Few Stories Set in the 60's, where There was More to the Action Than the Games, AuthorHouse, page 187

Third was my college loan of five thousand dollars and some odd change.

2010, Chris Thomas, The Rockefeller Fraud, Xulon Press, page 24

There are odd bits of green here and there in patches, but no continuous stretches. The elk, swans and woodgrouse are no more. The old hamlets, farmsteads, hermitages and mills have vanished without trace.

1998, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Ronald Hingley, Five Plays, Oxford University Press, USA, page 148

The odd horse will now be employed in carting couch grass on to pasture land, carting hay, &c, to sheep in the field, carting roots, straw, &c, for feeding cattle in the boxes or dairy cows in the stalls or yards, and in various odd jobs on the farm ...

1879, Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening, page 262

At about 14 he rises a step by getting the 'odd' horse and cart, and does all the small carting work about the farm.

1894, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1, page 57

There is also the “orra man who, like the odd horse, is kept busy on odd jobs.

1912, John Burleigh, Ednam and Its Indwellers

In their original article, Messrs Christie and Schultz found that in 70 of the 100 most heavily traded stocks, Nasdaq dealers avoided quoting prices in odd eighths of a dollar. Buyers were far more likely to quote shares at 28 1/2 or 28 3/4 than at 28 5/8.

1998 January 15, “Collusion in the Stockmarket”, in The Economist

"Well, isn't it a bit unusual to run into an old friend in an odd corner of the world like this?" I asked.

1958, Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi, New Directions Publishing, page 218

Plant a clump in your postage stamp garden, or stuff them in an odd corner of a flower bed. (They prefer full sun but will tolerate filtered shade.)

2015, Karen Newcomb, The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden: Grow Tons of Organic Vegetables in Tiny Spaces and Containers, Ten Speed Press

He goes to Phrygia, and sees Scamander. "Happy are all," he says, "who are honoured by that odd clerk. Homer." In Macedonia, he finds hie mother.

1886, Walter William Skeat, The Wars of Alexander: An Alliterative Romance Translated Chiefly from the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, page 120, in (modern English) notes about the Middle English text

I assure you, if I were Hazlewood I should look on his compliments, his bowings, his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings with some little suspicion; and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at some odd times.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […]