Word: make Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English macen, machiæ, macian, macke, mak, make, maken, makiȝe, from Old English macian (“to build, make, work”), from Proto-West Germanic *makōn (“to build, make, work”), from *mak (“agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable”), from Proto-Germanic *makaz (“agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ǵ-, *meh₂ḱ- (“to knead”) or *meg- (“to be comfortable, pleasant”). Related to match. Cognates Cognate with Scots mak (“to make”), Yola maak, maake (“to make”), North Frisian maage, maaki, mååge (“to make”), Saterland Frisian moakje (“to make; to repair; to prepare; to preach; to earn”), West Frisian meitsje (“to make”), Alemannic German mache (“to make; to do”), Bavarian måcha, måchn (“to make; to do; to go; to cause; to play; to matter; to look”), Cimbrian machan (“to make”), Dutch and Low German maken (“to make”), German machen (“to make; to do; to go; to cause; to play; to fare; to look”), Luxembourgish maachen, man (“to make; to do; to take; to equal; to put”), Mòcheno mòchen (“to make”), Vilamovian mahha (“to make; to do”), Yiddish מאַכן (makhn, “to create, make; to do; to say”); also probably Irish mám (“yoke; duty, obligation; function, service”), Latin mācerō (“to soften; to weaken; to mortify; to torture”), Ancient Greek μάσσω (mássō, “to handle, knead; to wipe”), Bulgarian ма́жа (máža, “to smear; to oil”), Czech mazat (“to lubricate; to spread; to smear; to scribble; to erase”), Polish mazać (“to smear; to scribble; to pule, whimper”), Russian ма́зать (mázatʹ, “to oil; to paint; to smear; to soil; to miss”), Serbo-Croatian ма̏зати, mȁzati (“to smear; to dirty”), Ukrainian ма́зати (mázaty, “to smear”), Old Armenian մած (mac, “glued together, joined; coagulated, curdled; adhesive, sticking; compact; dense”), Hindi मचाना (macānā, “to cause, raise, wreak”). Pronunciation: /meɪk/, [meɪkʲ], [meːk], /mɛk/, /mæk/ 1. To create. Labels: transitive Example: We made a bird feeder for our yard. Example: I'll make a man out of him yet. 2. To create. Labels: transitive Example: I made a poem for her wedding. Example: He made a will. 3. To create. Labels: transitive Example: make war Example: They were just a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who went around making trouble for honest men. 4. To create. Labels: transitive Example: God made earth and heaven. Example: Thine are these orbs of light and shade; ⁠Thou madest Life in man and brute; ⁠Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made. 5. To create. Labels: transitive Example: I'm making cereal for breakfast. Who wants some? 6. To behave, to act. Labels: colloquial, intransitive Example: To make like a deer caught in the headlights. Example: They made nice together, as if their fight never happened. 7. To tend; to contribute; to have effect; with for or against. Labels: intransitive Example: And all Israel's language about this power, except that it makes for righteousness, is approximate language Example: Follow after the things which make for peace. 8. To constitute. Example: They make a cute couple. Example: This makes the third infraction. 9. To add up to, have a sum of. Labels: transitive Example: Two and four make six. 10. To interpret. Labels: transitive Example: I don’t know what to make of it. Example: They couldn't make anything of the inscription. 11. To bring into success. Labels: stressed, transitive, usually Example: This company is what made you. Example: She married into wealth and so has it made. 12. To cause to be. Labels: ditransitive Example: The blisters on my foot made it a problem to walk without a cane. Example: The citizens made their objections clear. 13. To cause to appear to be; to represent as. Example: Homer makes Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus, unlike Hesiod who depicted her as born from the sea foam. Example: 1709–1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning He is not that goose and Ass that Valla would make him. 14. To cause (to do something); to compel (to do something). Labels: ditransitive Example: You're making her cry. Example: I was made to feel like a criminal. 15. To force to do. Labels: ditransitive Example: The teacher made the student study harder. Example: Don’t let them make you suffer. 16. To indicate or suggest to be. Labels: ditransitive Example: His past mistakes don’t make him a bad person. 17. To cover neatly with bedclothes. Labels: transitive 18. To recognise, identify, spot. Labels: US, slang, transitive Example: I caught sight of him two or three times and then made him turning north into Laurel Canyon Drive. Example: 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. 19. To arrive at a destination, usually at or by a certain time. Labels: colloquial, transitive Example: We should make Cincinnati by 7 tonight. Example: I won't be able to make dinner; something's come up at work. 20. To proceed (in a direction). Labels: colloquial, intransitive Example: They made westward over the snowy mountains. Example: Make for the hills! It's a wildfire! 21. To cover (a given distance) by travelling. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: 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. 22. To move at (a speed). Labels: transitive Example: The ship could make 20 knots an hour in calm seas. Example: This baby can make 220 miles an hour. 23. To appoint; to name. Example: On November 15, 1396,[…]Benedict XIII made him bishop of Noyon; 24. To induct into the Mafia or a similar organization (as a made man). Labels: slang, transitive Example: Jimmy Conway: They're gonna make him. Henry Hill: Paulie's gonna make you? 25. To defecate or urinate. Labels: colloquial, euphemistic, intransitive Example: 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. Example: "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! 26. To earn, to gain (money, points, membership or status). Labels: transitive Example: They hope to make a bigger profit. Example: He didn't make the choir after his voice changed. 27. To pay, to cover (an expense); chiefly used after expressions of inability. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: 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? 28. To compose verses; to write poetry; to versify. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman to solace him some time, as I do when I make 29. To enact; to establish. Example: 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. 30. To develop into; to prove to be. Example: She'll make a fine president. Example: Classical literature usually makes heavy reading. 31. To study or train so as to become (a profession); to grow up to be (something). Labels: Appalachia Example: He'll make a doctor one day. 32. To form or formulate in the mind. Example: make plans Example: made a questionable decision 33. To perform a feat. Example: make a leap Example: make a pass 34. To gain sufficient audience to warrant its existence. Labels: intransitive Example: In the end, my class didn't make, which left me with a bit of free time. 35. 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. Labels: obsolete Example: a scurvy, jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make 36. To increase; to augment; to accrue. Labels: obsolete 37. To be engaged or concerned in. Labels: obsolete Example: Gomez, what makest thou here, with a whole brotherhood of city bailiffs? 38. To cause to be (in a specified place), used after a subjective what. Labels: archaic Example: Footman. Madam! Mr. Dorimant! Lov. What makes him here? Example: What makes her in the wood so late, A furlong from the castle gate? 39. To take the virginity of. Labels: euphemistic, transitive Example: 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 were Showed me the way to promotion an' pay, An' I learned about women from 'er! 40. To have sexual intercourse with. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: 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. 41. Of water, to flow toward land; to rise. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. 42. To establish two or more men on (a point) so that it cannot be captured. Labels: transitive