Word.ws English Dictionary

laying odds

laying odds is the present participle and gerund of lay odds.

Meaning of lay odds

Verb

lay odds (third-person singular simple present lays odds, present participle laying odds, simple past and past participle laid odds)

  1. To offer a bet in which one stands more to lose than the opponent; or a bet in some other way favourable to the opponent.
    • Prince John: "I will lay odds that, ere this year expire, / We bear our civil swords and native fire / As far as France. I heard a bird so sing, / Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the King."c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
  2. To feel certain about something.

Questions about laying odds

What is laying odds the present participle and gerund of?
Laying odds is the present participle and gerund of lay odds.

Words near laying odds in the dictionary

  1. laying in lavender
  2. laying into
  3. laying it on
  4. laying it on thick
  5. laying low
  6. laying odds
  7. laying off
  8. laying on
  9. laying on of hands
  10. laying on the line
  11. laying on with a trowel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laying odds (page history and authors); lay odds (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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