Dictionary

odd man en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɒd man/ (UK)

Etymology

From odd + man, probably after a Scandinavian source. Compare Old Norse odda-maðr.

Meanings

1. In a group having an odd number of people, someone with the casting vote; an arbiter.
2. Someone who does odd jobs.
   • Their complexion was lustreless and clammy, although Aunt Evelyn's odd man had given them all the energy of his elbow. 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 86:
   • ‘My father always kept a dog-cart, and we had three servants. We had a cook and a housemaid and an odd man.’ 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 58, in Of Human Bondage:
3. A man who trains in company with a boat's crew, so that he can take the place of anybody who falls ill.

Forms

Relateds

odd man out