A great amount.

It's American slang, from the nineteenth century, but no one is sure from where. There's speculation it's an abbreviation of "scadoodle" or "boodle," but even the OED is uncertain.

Often paired with a rhyme, as in "oodles of poodles" or "oodles of noodles," in 1992 it was attached to a Milton Bradley game. Oodles® ("The game you can't get enough of!™") involved an electronic timer into which you inserted one of 300 cards. The card had questions on it (or, in the game's parlance, oodlers, and if you correctly the first one, you could continue on to complete a series of ten oodlers. If you answered a question wrong, then anyone else had a chance to answer, and they had the chance to complete the ten. Whoever answered the last oodler on the card correctly won the card itself, and five cards meant victory. The difference between a "question" and an "oodler?" An oodler was supposedly a funny question or a clue in the manner of a crossword puzzle, such as these:

Oodles™ was also the name given to a line of PVC dolls created by Mel Birnkrant in 1985 for Kiscom. The dolls were of plump naked babies with a lock of hair curled on top that formed a hole to attach a string for a necklace or bracelet. The dolls debuted in 1986 and failed to catch on, although one of Birnkrant's molds was stolen, and the resulting dolls went on to sell millions in Europe without the Oodles™ name or Birnkrant's knowledge.

Sources:
"Oodles." Boardgamegeek.com. <www.boardgamegeek.com/game/642> (December 22, 2005)
Oxford English Dictionary. <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00332215> (December 22, 2005)
Mel Birnkrant. "Oodles Final Page." Prillycharmin.net. <http://www.prillycharmin.net/dolls/oodlesculpy3.htm> (December 22, 2005)
Kel Richards, "ABC NewsRadio: wordwatch, Oodles." <http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/txt/s1381248.htm> (December 22, 2005)

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