evens

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of even.

   A skilled negotiator evens the balance between the two sides.

   The new policy evens the gap between wealthy and poorer districts.

   Note

   The present-tense form of a verb whose older meanings are now obsolete: to equate, to balance accounts, to keep pace with. What survives is making things flat, level or equal, as when a negotiator evens the balance between two sides. The same spelling is also the plural noun, so syntax tells them apart. A policy evens the gap is a verb; long winter evens is a noun.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Odds of one to one, in which a winning bet returns the same amount as was staked; even money.

   The bookmaker offered evens on the home team.

   With both fighters evenly matched, the odds settled at evens.

   Note

   A bookmaking term that is usually met in the phrase at evens: a horse is worth backing at evens, or a price settles at evens. A winning bettor gets the stake back plus an equal profit, so the money doubles. Though the word looks plural, it names a single price. Even money says the same thing at greater length.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of even. Archaic or poetic, meaning evenings.

   Note

   One spelling covers several unrelated plurals. Evens can be even numbers. It can be evenings, a word now archaic and poetic and at home in verse about dusk on the moor. It can also be members of the Even, an indigenous people of Siberia and the Russian Far East. Only context tells them apart, and the betting sense is a separate noun in its own right.

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