oodles

English

WOTD – 21 October 2021

Etymology 1

Uncertain; perhaps from scadoodles (“unspecified large amount, number, or quantity”) (US, slang) (although the Oxford English Dictionary notes this is attested slightly later), or from boodle (“whole collection or lot”) (US, dialectal), caboodle (“large collection of people or things”) (US, slang) +‎ -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈuːdlz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈud(ə)lz/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: oo‧dles

Noun

oodles pl (normally plural, singular oodle)

1. (originally US, informal) Chiefly followed by of: an unspecified large amount, number, or quantity; lots, tons.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lot

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum

   • 1965, John Updike, Of the Farm, Ipswitch edition, London: André Deutsch, published April 1973, →ISBN, page 121:

     "Along the lake where I went camping once there were oodles of a bright purple thing." / "I don't know what that was," my mother said. "I've never lived near the water. The purplest thing around here is joe-pye weed. We can look him up and see if he has any relatives. Come to think of it, the book had a color index."

   • 2008, Andrew Burke et al., Thailand’s Islands & Beaches, 6th edition, Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 323:

     Minimalist yet soothing décor, private pools and steam rooms […] and simply oodles of class make this one of the island's top choices. Honeymoon, anyone?

Translations

unspecified large amount, number, or quantity — see also lots

• Faroese: rúgva f
• French: foultitude (fr) f, un tas (de) f
• Hungarian: rengeteg (hu), tömérdek (hu), temérdek (hu)
• Polish: masa (pl), mnóstwo (pl)
• Swedish: mängder (sv), massor (sv), tonvis (informal)

Further reading

• indefinite and fictitious numbers on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Noun

oodles

1. plural of oodle

Anagrams

• dolose, dooles, loosed, soloed, soodle, sooled