But the odds of passing legislation decreased after the Democrats captured the Michigan House in Tuesday's elections.

The odds of talking Tyler out of coming at me with that knife again were decreasing by the second.

But now the odds of" success had dramatically decreased.

"Their odds have definitely decreased," said Christoph Guttentag, dean of admissions at Duke University.

The criminals could be incarcerated swiftly, and the odds of accusing the wrong person would decrease exponentially.

I'd say an ion trail," Joseph told him, "but the odds of finding something like that are decreasing as we speak.

"The odds in our favor have suddenly decreased," the Vorta noted with irony.

Because of the exponential tails of the normal distribution, odds of higher deviations decrease very quickly.

"The odds of Bajor obtaining a safe, beneficial outcome will decrease if the Cardassians think we're luring them into a trap," she said, playing the opposition card.

For creating heavier and heavier elements, the odds decrease to fractions of a single picobarn - an atom every few weeks or less, if you are lucky.