make

make do manage with the limited or inadequate means available.

☞ This phrase can be used alone or in make do and mend, a UK slogan from the 1940s encouraging people to be frugal in wartime by mending and reusing worn-out clothes, sheets, etc. rather than throwing them away.

make or break be the factor which decides whether something will succeed or fail.

☞ A variant of this phrase, found chiefly in British English, is make or mar. The use of make together with mar is recorded from the early 15th century, but since the mid 19th century break has become more common.

2014CNN transcripts You know, big storms can test mayors, can make or break them. Imagine having to deal with it on your third day.

on the make

1 intent on gain, typically in a rather unscrupulous way.

2 looking for a sexual partner. informal

put the make on make sexual advances to. North American informal

1993Anne River SiddonsHill Towns Put the make on you, did she, Joe? I should have warned you. Past a certain blood alcohol level Yolie gets snuggly.

☞ For other idioms containing make, see the entry for the main word in the idiom (for example, make hay at hay).