lay odds
1. To offer a bet with favorable odds to other bettors. Bookmakers are laying odds that the company's new smartphone outsells its competitors 2:1.
2. To assert complete certainty about something. I'll lay odds that Jeremy tries to skip out on paying me back for dinner.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
lay odds
Make a bet on terms favorable to the other party, as in I'll lay odds that it will rain before the week is out. [c. 1600] The closely related lay a wager means "make a bet," as in He laid a wager that Don would be late. [c. 1300]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
lay (or give) odds
1 offer a bet with odds favourable to the other person betting. 2 be very sure about something. The opposite of lay odds in sense 1 is take odds which means ‘offer a bet with odds unfavourable to the other person betting’.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017