against the odds

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom meaning in a situation where the probability of success is low, or describing an achievement accomplished despite unfavourable circumstances that made success statistically unlikely; the phrase draws on the gambling vocabulary of odds — the ratio of probability for and against a particular outcome — and applies it to life situations where the structural factors, prior evidence, or expert judgement all suggest that success is improbable; to do something against the odds is to defy probabilistic expectation and achieve what most observers believed was unlikely, and stories of achievement against the odds carry particular cultural power because they seem to demonstrate that individual will and character can overcome structural disadvantage; in health contexts the phrase describes patients who recover from illnesses where survival rates are low, or who achieve remissions that statistics suggested were improbable, and their stories are frequently invoked as sources of hope and evidence that statistics describe populations rather than determining individual outcomes