strange

A rather unusual, strange, eccentric, or peculiar person. His new girlfriend is nice enough, but she's a bit of a strange bird, don't you think?

A rather unusual, strange, eccentric, or peculiar person. His new girlfriend is nice enough, but she's a bit of a strange duck, don't you think?

Very wary or timid. Of course he's acting like a cat in a strange garret—he's never been to the big city before!

Prov. People who would normally dislike and avoid one another will work together if they think it is politically useful to do so. Jill: I never would have thought that genteel, aristocratic candidate would pick such a rabble-rousing, rough-mannered running mate. Jane: Politics makes strange bedfellows.

If two people or groups make strange bedfellows, they are connected in a particular activity though they are very different and would not usually have the same opinions or be seen together. Priests and pop stars make strange bedfellows, but on this issue they agree.

used to emphasize that something is strange/stupid, etc.

A peculiar alliance or combination, as in George and Arthur really are strange bedfellows, sharing the same job but totally different in their views . Although strictly speaking bedfellows are persons who share a bed, like husband and wife, the term has been used figuratively since the late 1400s. This particular idiom may have been invented by Shakespeare in The Tempest (2:2), "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." Today a common extension is politics makes strange bedfellows, meaning that politicians form peculiar associations so as to win more votes. A similar term is odd couple, a pair who share either housing or a business but are very different in most ways. This term gained currency with Neil Simon's Broadway play The Odd Couple and, even more, with the motion picture (1968) and subsequent television series based on it, contrasting housemates Felix and Oscar, one meticulously neat and obsessively punctual, the other extremely messy and casual.

Also, strangely enough. Surprisingly, curiously, unaccountably, as in Strange to say, all the boys in his class are six feet tall or taller, or I've never been to the circus, strangely enough. This idiom was first recorded in 1697 as strange to relate.