oddballn.adj.

1943 Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 11 Sept. 12/1 Bovingdon was not only expiating his own oddity..but paying off the score for too many other ‘odd-balls’ who had gravitated to Washington since it became a sort of political Hollywood.

1948 Amer. Speech 23 221 Odd ball..connoted that the individual's strangeness was not the result of prison camp experiences.

1952 B. Malamud Natural 59 The place often resembled a zoo full of oddballs, including gamblers, bums, drunks, and some ugly crackpots.

1968 Canad. Antiques Collector Dec. 10/1 The classic tradition was too strong at the end of the 18th c. for any but obvious odd balls to find a ‘better way’ of building their houses.

1989 Design Week 18 Aug. 15/5 We're oddballs who can't be pigeonholed.

2000 Independent 10 May i. 11/3 The novel mixes an eccentric island backdrop..with a cast of intriguing oddballs.

1945 Long Beach (Calif.) Independent 28 Jan. 18/2 If the ‘teach’ is well disliked, he or she is referred to as a member of the ‘odd ball squad’. So also is anyone else who is razzed.

1957 Sat. Evening Post 26 Jan. 27 ‘The most happy fellas,’ said an odd-ball correspondent.

1961 Down Beat 13 Apr. 37 This set contains a good sampling of his abilities on trumpet, alto, baritone, and the oddball peckhorn.

1974 V. B. Miller Girl in River 36 I don't care how oddball you think the idea is.

1994 Q Aug. 99/1 Oddball tales like Breakfast, in which the children catch mum and dad making out on the kitchen floor.

2000 Times 28 Dec. ii. 26/1 With an eclectic melée of oddball characters, this endearing yarn works..as a send-up of sword-and-sorcery tales.