(~er, ~est)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
If you describe someone or something as ~, you think that they are strange or unusual.
He’d always been ~, but not to this extent...
What an ~ coincidence that he should have known your family...
Something ~ began to happen.
= peculiar
ADJ
see also ~-looking
~ly
...an ~ly shaped hill...
His own boss was behaving rather ~ly.
ADV: ADV with v
2.
You use ~ before a noun to indicate that you are not mentioning the type, size, or quality of something because it is not important.
...moving from place to place where she could find the ~ bit of work...
I knew that Alan liked the ~ drink.
= occasional
ADJ: det ADJ
3.
You use ~ after a number to indicate that it is only approximate. (INFORMAL)
He has now appeared in sixty ~ films...
‘How long have you lived here?’—‘Twenty ~ years.’
ADV: num ADV
4.
Odd numbers, such as 3 and 17, are those which cannot be divided exactly by the number two.
The ~ numbers are on the left as you walk up the street...
There’s an ~ number of candidates.
? even
ADJ: usu ADJ n
5.
You say that two things are ~ when they do not belong to the same set or pair.
I’m wearing ~ socks today by the way.
? matching
ADJ
6.
The ~ man out, the ~ woman out, or the ~ one out in a particular situation is a person who is different from the other people in it.
Azerbaijan has been the ~ man out, the one republic not to hold democratic elections...
Mark and Rick were the ~ ones out in claiming to like this cherry beer.
PHRASE: N inflects, usu v-link PHR
7.
see also ~s , ~s and ends