Etimology
From Middle English maken, from Old English macian (“to make, build, work”), from Proto-West Germanic *makōn (“to make, build, work”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ǵ- (“to knead, mix, make”). Cognate with Scots mak (“to make”), Saterland Frisian moakje (“to make”), West Frisian meitsje (“to make”), Dutch maken (“to make”), Dutch Low Saxon maken (“to make”), German Low German maken (“to make”), German machen (“to make, do”), Danish mage (“to make, arrange (in a certain way)”), Latin mācerō, macer, Ancient Greek μάσσω (mássō). Related to match.
verb
make (third-person singular simple present makes, present participle making, simple past and past participle made or (dialectal or obsolete) maked)
(transitive) To create.
(intransitive, now mostly colloquial) To behave, to act.
(intransitive) To tend; to contribute; to have effect; with for or against.
To constitute.
(transitive) To add up to, have a sum of.
(transitive, construed with of, typically interrogative) To interpret.
(transitive, usually stressed) To bring into success.
(ditransitive, second object is an adjective or participle) To cause to be.
To cause to appear to be; to represent as.
(ditransitive, second object is a verb) To cause (to do something); to compel (to do something).
(ditransitive, second object is a verb, can be stressed for emphasis or clarity) To force to do.
(ditransitive, of a fact) To indicate or suggest to be.
(transitive, of a bed) To cover neatly with bedclothes.
(transitive, US slang, crime, law enforcement) To recognise, identify, spot.
(transitive, colloquial) To arrive at a destination, usually at or by a certain time.
(intransitive, colloquial) To proceed (in a direction).
(transitive) To cover (a given distance) by travelling. [from 16thc.]
(transitive) To move at (a speed). [from 17thc.]
To appoint; to name.
(transitive, slang) To induct into the Mafia or a similar organization (as a made man).
(intransitive, colloquial, euphemistic) To defecate or urinate.
(transitive) To earn, to gain (money, points, membership or status).
(transitive) To pay, to cover (an expense); chiefly used after expressions of inability.
(obsolete, intransitive) To compose verses; to write poetry; to versify.
To enact; to establish.
To develop into; to prove to be.
To form or formulate in the mind.
To perform a feat.
(intransitive) To gain sufficient audience to warrant its existence.
(obsolete) To act in a certain manner; to have to do; to manage; to interfere; to be active; often in the phrase to meddle or make.
(obsolete) To increase; to augment; to accrue.
(obsolete) To be engaged or concerned in.
(now archaic) To cause to be (in a specified place), used after a subjective what.
(transitive, euphemistic) To take the virginity of.
(transitive) To have sexual intercourse with.
(intransitive) Of water, to flow toward land; to rise.
Examples
Synonyms: fabricate; see also Thesaurus:build
We made a bird feeder for our yard.
I'll make a man out of him yet.
He makes deodorants.
Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.
Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
I made a poem for her wedding.
He made a will.
make war
They were just a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who went around making trouble for honest men.
God made earth and heaven.
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;Thou madest Life in man and brute;Thou madest Death; and lo, thy footIs on the skull which thou hast made.
I'm making cereal for breakfast. Who wants some?
To make like a deer caught in the headlights.
They made nice together, as if their fight never happened.
He made as if to punch him, but they both laughed and shook hands.
And all Israel's language about this power, except that it makes for righteousness, is approximate language
Follow after the things which make for peace.
Considerations infinite / Do make against it.
They make a cute couple.
This makes the third infraction.
One swallow does not a summer make.
We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.
Style alone does not make a writer.
So if your prospective school is proudly displaying that "We Are Outstanding" banner on its perimeter fence, well, that is wonderful … but do bear in mind that in all likelihood it has been awarded for results in those two subjects, rather than for its delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum which brings out the best in every child. Which is, of course, what makes a great primary school.
Two and four make six.
I don’t know what to make of it.
They couldn't make anything of the inscription.
What time do you make it?
This company is what made you.
She married into wealth and so has it made.
who makes or ruins with a smile or frown
A great expression and amazing eye contact, in particular, can make a photograph, and without them, you can end up with very little.
Synonym: render
The citizens made their objections clear.
This might make you a bit woozy.
Did I make myself heard?
Scotch will make you a man.
Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
Homer makes Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus, unlike Hesiod who depicted her as born from the sea foam.
He is not that goose and Ass that Valla would make him.
So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
You're making her cry.
I was made to feel like a criminal.
In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
The teacher made the student study.
Don’t let them make you suffer.
His past mistakes don’t make him a bad person.
Synonyms: twig, notice; see also Thesaurus:identify
I caught sight of him two or three times and then made him turning north into Laurel Canyon Drive.
Linus Caldwell: Well, she just made Danny and Yen, which means in the next 48 hours the three o' your pictures are gonna be in every police station in Europe.
David Sinclair: Almost at Seventh; I should have a visual any second now. Damn, that was close.Don Eppes: David, he make you?David Sinclair: No, I don't think so.
We should make Cincinnati by 7 tonight.
They that sail in the middle can make no land of either side.
They made westward over the snowy mountains.
Make for the hills! It's a wildfire!
They made away from the fire toward the river.
As the guard's whistle shrilled the "right away," I made to join my companions in the train, but with a smile the driver, whose name was Abdul, bade me take the fireman's seat.
I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.
I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to fatigue and accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable time hunting and exploring in the immediate vicinity of camp.
The ship could make 20 knots an hour in calm seas.
This baby can make 220 miles an hour.
On November 15, 1396, […] Benedict XIII made him bishop of Noyon;
Jimmy Conway: They're gonna make him.Henry Hill: Paulie's gonna make you?
When my father comes back with a dark wet spot on his pants, right in front, as if he has made in his pants, he starts eating his food in great shovelfuls.
"He made in his pants, okay? I hope everybody's satisfied!" She flung her hat on the floor and kicked it. "He'll never come back to school now! Never! And it's all your fault!
They hope to make a bigger profit.
He didn't make the choir after his voice changed.
She made ten points in that game.
Wales' defence had an unfamiliar look with Cardiff youngster Darcy Blake preferred to 44-cap Danny Gabbidon of Queen's Park Rangers, who did not even make the bench.
Bart spies an opportunity to make a quick buck so he channels his inner carny and posits his sinking house as a natural wonder of the world and its inhabitants as freaks, barking to dazzled spectators, “Behold the horrors of the Slanty Shanty! See the twisted creatures that dwell within! Meet Cue-Ball, the man with no hair!”
Whether, […], the construction of additional roads […] would present a case in which the exaction of prohibitory or otherwise onerous rates may be prevented, though it result in an impossibility for some or all of the roads to make expenses, we need not say; no such case is before us.
At first glance, you may be able to make rent and other overhead expenses because the business is doing well, but if sales drop can you still make rent?
So you can’t make payroll. This happens. […] many business owners who have never confronted it before will be forced to deal with this most difficult matter of not making payroll.
to solace him some time, as I do when I make
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
She'll make a fine president.
make plans
made a questionable decision
make a leap
make a pass
make a u-turn
In the end, my class didn't make, which left me with a bit of free time.
a scurvy, jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make
Gomez, what makest thou here, with a whole brotherhood of city bailiffs?
Footman. Madam! Mr. Dorimant!Lov. What makes him here?
What makes her in the wood so late, / A furlong from the castle gate?
I was a young un at 'Oogli,Shy as a girl to begin;Aggie de Castrer she made me,— An' Aggie was clever as sin;Older than me, but my first un —More like a mother she wereShowed me the way to promotion an' pay,An' I learned about women from 'er!
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate with
He could see that her face was thin, proud. She looked like she'd be a hard dame to make. He didn't want just that. She'd be a hard dame to win.
The boys in the lower classes who had already dropped out of school derived much of their prestige among their peers from their skill in “making” girls.
The only thing she wants to make is you!
Monday night, I'm makin' Jen / Tuesday night, I'm makin' Lyn / Wednesday night, I'm makin' Catherine / Oh, why can't I be makin' love come true?
The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for us was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
noun
make (plural makes)
Brand or kind; model.
Manner or style of construction (style of how a thing is made); form.
Origin (of a manufactured article); manufacture; production.
A person's character or disposition.
(dated) The act or process of making something, especially in industrial manufacturing.
(uncountable) Quantity produced, especially of materials.
(computing) A software utility for automatically building large applications, or an implementation of this utility.
(slang) Identification or recognition (of identity), especially from police records or evidence.
(slang, military) A promotion.
A home-made project.
(card games) Turn to declare the trump for a hand (in bridge), or to shuffle the cards.
(basketball) A made basket.
(physics) The closing of an electrical circuit.
Examples
Synonyms: type, manufacturer
What make of car do you drive?
I can name the tribe every moccasin belongs to by the make of it.
The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.
The Royal Typewriter Company is distributing a very attractive eight page folder, announcing the Royal Number 10, the first machine of Royal make which uses levers instead of wires to operate the type-bars.
The camera was of German make.
I never feel very much excited about any old thing; it's not my make; but I've got a sort of shiver inside of me, and a watery feeling in the heart region.
Synonyms: making, manufacture, manufacturing, production
[…] papers are respectively of second or inferior quality, the last being perhaps torn or broken in the "make" — as the manufacture is technically termed.
Synonyms: production, output
In 1880 the make of pig iron in all countries was 18,300,000 tons.
However, the unzip and make programs weren't found, so the default was left blank.
Synonym: ID
"They ever get a make on the blood type?" Horn asked, staring at the stained mattress.
"I'm sure we'll get a make on the suspect's prints by day break, so if you come down town, I'll see you get everything available. Go ahead and process the car, we won't have any need of it."
He got out his binoculars, trying for a make on the plate, but the plate light was conveniently not working. The windows must have been tinted, because he could not see inside the van, either.
“Okay, if I could understand correctly what Oscar was saying through all the doubletalk, we've got a make on the bigwig occupant of the convoy ahead. Chaim Lieberman, Israeli Ambassador to the United States.” “Shit,” said Gardner.
Sent back the list of makes with only Post and Hamilton on it.
Blue Peter "make"
It's your make as the cards lie. Take your time.
'Not your make,' said the adjutant sternly and started dealing the cards with his white be-ringed hands as though he was in haste to get rid of them.
Synonyms: completion, actuation
Antonym: break
If the interrupter operated every 2 sec., the current would rise to 10 amp. and drop to zero with successive "makes" and "breaks."
Related words
related terms
match
Etimology
From Middle English make, imake, ȝemace, from Old English ġemaca (“a mate, an equal, companion, peer”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamakō, from Proto-Germanic *gamakô (“companion, comrade”), from Proto-Indo-European *maǵ- (“to knead, oil”). Reinforced by Old Norse maki (“an equal”). Cognate with Icelandic maki (“spouse”), Swedish make (“spouse, husband”), Danish mage (“companion, fellow, mate”). Doublet of match.
noun
make (plural makes)
(slang, usually in phrase "easy make") Past, present, or future target of seduction (usually female).
(UK, dialectal) Mate; a spouse or companion; a match.
Examples
To me, if I weren't going with someone and was taking pills, it would be like advertising that I'm an easy make.
She's your make, not mine. […] It isn't anything short of difficult to entertain someone else's pregnant fiancee.
Th'Elfe therewith astownd, / Vpstarted lightly from his looser make, / And his vnready weapons gan in hand to take.
Where their maids and their makes / At dancing and wakes, / Had their napkins and posies / And the wipers for their noses
But then sometimes I thought, it's a black Crake / That never to her-sell can get a Make.
Every cake hath its make; but a scrape cake hath two.
Etimology
Uncertain.
noun
make (plural makes)
(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, now rare) A halfpenny. [from 16th c.]
Examples
the last we shall have, I take it; for a make to a million, but we trine to the nubbing cheat to-morrow.
Only as he climbed the steps did he mind that he hadn't even a meck upon him, and turned to jump off as the tram with a showd swung grinding down to the Harbour […]
Etimology
Origin unclear.
noun
make (plural makes)
(East Anglia, Essex, obsolete) An agricultural tool resembling a scythe, used to cut (harvest) certain plants such as peas, reeds, or tares.
Examples
Harvest.—When left for seed, they are cut and wadded as pease, with a make.Produce.—From three to six sacks an acre.
Harvest. Taken up by a pease-make, and left in small heaps, and turned as often as the weather may make it necessary.