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Make Definition

make

See also måke

Contents

English

Make on Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English maken, from Old English macian (“to make, build, work”), from Proto-Germanic *makōnan (“to make, build, work”), from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, mix, make”). Cognate with Dutch maken (“to make”), Low German maken (“to make”), German machen (“to make, do”). Related to match.

Verb

make (third-person singular simple present makes, present participle making, simple past and past participle made)

  1. (intransitive, now mostly colloquial) To behave, to act.
    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.
  2. (transitive) To create, construct, or produce.
    We made a bird feeder for our yard.
    They hope to make a bigger profit.
    We'll make a man out of him yet.
  3. (linguistics, transitive) To form (e.g. a word out of morphemes).
  4. To constitute.
    They make a cute couple.
    This makes the third infraction.
  5. (construed with of, typically interrogative) To interpret.
    I don’t know what to make of it.
  6. (usually stressed) To bring into success.
    This company is what made you.
    She married into wealth. She has it made.
  7. (second object is an adjective, participle, or noun) To cause to be.
    The citizens made their objections clear.
    This might make you a bit woozy.
    Did I make myself heard?
    Scotch will make you a man.
  8. (second object is a verb) To cause to do.
    You're making her cry.
    I was made to feel like a criminal.
  9. (second object is a verb, can be stressed for emphasis or clarity) To force to do.
    The teacher made the student study.
    Don’t let them make you suffer.
  10. (of a fact) To indicate or suggest to be.
    His past mistakes don’t make him a bad person.
  11. (of a bed) To cover neatly with bedclothes.
  12. (slang, of a person being sought) To recognise (without being recognised in return).
    • 2004, George Nolfi et al, Ocean's Twelve, Warner Bros. Pictures, 0:50:30:
      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.
    • 2007 May 4, Andrew Dettmann et al, "Under Pressure", episode 3-22 of Numb3rs, 00:01:16:
      David Sinclair: (walking) Almost at Seventh; I should have a visual any second now. (rounds a corner, almost collides into Kaleed Asan) Damn, that was close. Don Eppes: David, he make you? David Sinclair: No, I don't think so.
  13. (transitive, colloquial) To arrive at a destination, usually at or by a certain time.
    We should make Cincinnati by 7 tonight.
  14. (intransitive, colloquial) To proceed (in a direction).
    They made westward over the snowy mountains.
    Make for the hills! It's a wildfire!
    They made away from the fire toward the river.
  15. To cover (a given distance) by travelling. [from 16th c.]
    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VIII
      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.
  16. To move at (a speed). [from 17th c.]
    The ship could make 20 knots an hour in calm seas.
    We're lost, but we're making good time so far.
    This baby can make 220 miles an hour.
  17. (slang) To induct into the Mafia or a similar organization (as a made man).
    • 1990, Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas:
      Jimmy Conway: They're gonna make him.
      Henry Hill: Paulie's gonna make you?
  18. (intransitive, colloquial, euphemistic) To defecate or urinate.
    • 1992, Merrill Joan Gerber, The kingdom of Brooklyn, page 30:
      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
    • 2003, Mary Anne Kelly, The Cordelia Squad, page 121:
      "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!
  19. To earn, to gain (money).
    You have to spend money to make money!
    He made twenty bucks playing poker last night.
    She makes more than he does, and works longer hours than he does, but she still does most of the house-cleaning.
  20. (transitive) To pay, to cover (an expense); chiefly used after expressions of inability.
    • 1889 May 1, Chief Justice George P. Raney, Pensacola & A. R. Co. v. State of Florida (judicial opinion), reproduced in The Southern Reporter, Volume 5, West Publishing Company, page 843:
      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.
    • 2005, Yuvi Shmul and Ron Peltier, Make It Big with Yuvi: How to Buy Or Start a Small Business, the Best Investment, AuthorHouse, ISBN 1-4259-0021-6, page 67:
      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?
    • 2011, Donald Todrin, Successfully Navigating the Downturn, Entrepreneur Press, ISBN 1-59918-419-2, page 194:
      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.
  21. This word needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{}}.
    • 2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, BBC:
      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.
Derived terms
Terms derived from make (verb)
See also
Translations
to construct
to produce
  • Afrikaans: produseer (af)
  • Arabic: صنع (ar) (Sána3a)
  • Armenian: արտադրել (hy) (artadrel)
  • Finnish: tehdä (fi), tuottaa (fi)
  • Japanese: 作る (ja) (つくる, tsukuru), 生産する (ja) (せいさんする, seisansuru) (for crops and industrial products), 製造する (ja) (せいぞうする, seizōsuru) (for industrial products)
to create
to form
to constitute
  • Afrikaans: vorm (af)
  • Armenian: լինել (hy) (linel), կազմել (hy) (kazmel)
  • Dutch: vormen (nl)
  • Finnish: olla (fi)
to interpret
to bring into success
  • Dutch: maken (nl)
  • Finnish: tehdä (fi)
  • German: machen (de)
  • Greek: καταφέρνω (el)
  • Japanese: 成す (ja) (nasu), 成し遂げる (ja) (nashitogeru)
to cause to be
  • German: machen (de)
  • Hebrew: גרם (he) (garám)
  • Japanese: 原因になる (ja) (gen'in ni naru)
  • Latin: facio (la), ago (la)
  • Portuguese: fazer (pt)
  • Spanish: hacer (es)
to cause to do
to force to do
to indicate or suggest to be
  • Afrikaans: maak (af)
  • Armenian: դարձնել (hy) (darjnel)
  • Dutch: maken (nl)
  • Finnish: tehdä (fi)
  • German: machen (de)
  • Japanese: 推測させる (ja) (suisokusaseru)
  • Latin: facio (la), ago (la)
  • Portuguese: fazer (pt)
  • Spanish: hacer (es)
  • Welsh: awgrymu (cy)
to cover with bedclothes
  • Czech: ustlat (cs), stlát (cs)
to recognise
to earn, to gain (money)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

make (plural makes)

  1. (often of a car) Brand or kind; often paired with model. syn. transl.
    What make of car do you drive?
  2. How a thing is made; construction. syn.
    • 1907, Mark Twain, A Horse's Tale[1]:
      I can name the tribe every moccasin belongs to by the make of it.
  3. Origin of a manufactured article; manufacture. syn.
    The camera was of German make.
  4. (uncountable) Quantity produced, especially of materials. syn.
  5. (dated) The act or process of making something, especially in industrial manufacturing. syn.
    • 1908, Charles Thomas Jacobi, Printing: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Typography as Applied More Particularly to the Printing of Books[2], page 331:
      […] papers are respectively of second or inferior quality, the last being perhaps torn or broken in the "make" — as the manufacture is technically termed.
  6. A person's character or disposition. syn.
    • 1914, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, Perch of the Devil[3], page 274:
      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.
  7. (bridge) The declaration of the trump for a hand.
    • 1925, Robert William Chambers, The Talkers[4], page 195:
      It's your make as the cards lie. Take your time.
  8. (physics) The closing of an electrical circuit. syn.
    • 1947, Charles Seymour Siskind, Electricity[5], page 94:
      If the interrupter operated every 2 sec., the current would rise to 10 amp. and drop to zero with successive "makes" and "breaks."
  9. (computing) A software utility for automatically building large applications, or an implementation of this utility.
    • 2003, D. Curtis Jamison, Perl Programming for Biologists[6], ISBN 0471430595, page 115:
      However, the unzip and make programs weren't found, so the default was left blank.
  10. (slang) Recognition or identification, especially from police records or evidence. syn.
    • 2003, John Lutz, The Night Spider[7], ISBN 0786015160, page 53:
      "They ever get a make on the blood type?" Horn asked, staring at the stained mattress.
  11. (slang, usually in phrase "easy make") Past or future target of seduction (usually female). syn.
    • 2007, Prudence Mors Rains, Becoming an Unwed Mother[8], ISBN 020230955X, page 26:
      To me, if I weren't going with someone and was taking pills, it would be like advertising that I'm an easy make.
    • 1962, Ralph Moreno, A Man's Estate[9], page 12:
      She's your make, not mine. […] It isn't anything short of difficult to entertain someone else's pregnant fiancee.
  12. (slang, military) A promotion.
    • 2004, Joseph Stilwell, Seven Stars: The Okinawa Battle Diaries of Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. and Joseph Stilwell[10], ISBN 1585442941, page 94:
      Sent back the list of makes with only Post and Hamilton on it. (Buckner had recommended 10 staff officers and 1 combat soldier!)
Synonyms
Translations
brand def. syn.
  • Armenian: մակնիշ (hy) (makniš)
  • Chinese: 做
  • Czech: značka (cs) f.
  • Danish: mærke (da) n., fabrikat (da) n.
  • Dutch: merk (nl) n.
  • Esperanto: marko (eo)
  • Finnish: merkki (fi), malli (fi)

Etymology 2

From Middle English make, imake, from Old English ġemaca (“a mate, an equal, companion, peer”), 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”). See also match.

Noun

make (plural makes)

  1. (dialectal) Mate; a spouse or companion.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vii:
      Th'Elfe therewith astownd, / Vpstarted lightly from his looser make, / And his vnready weapons gan in hand to take.
    • 1624, Ben Jonson, The Masque of Owls at Kenilworth:
      Where their maids and their makes / At dancing and wakes, / Had their napkins and posies / And the wipers for their noses

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain.

Noun

make (plural makes)

  1. (UK, obsolete) A halfpenny.
    • 1826, Sir Walter Scott, Woodstock; Or, the Cavalier:
      the last we shall have, I take it; for a make to a million, but we trine to the nubbing cheat to-morrow.

Statistics

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

make

  1. singular present subjunctive of maken.

Hawaiian

Etymology

Originally mate, compare Maori mate.

Noun

make

  1. death

Japanese

Noun

make (hiragana まけ)

  1. 負け: lose

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

make c.

  1. a spouse, a husband, a married man

Declension

Declension of make
singular plural
Common indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative make maken makar makarna
genitive makes makens makars makarnas

Synonyms

Antonyms

 

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