To add up to, have a sum of.

• Two and four make six.

To interpret.

• I don’t know what to make of it.
• They couldn't make anything of the inscription.

To bring into success.

• This company is what made you.
• She married into wealth and so has it made.

To cause to be.

• The blisters on my foot made it a problem to walk without a cane.
• Caesar made rich men of his supporters back in Rome.

To cause to appear to be; to represent as.

• Homer makes Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus, unlike Hesiod who depicted her as born from the sea foam.
• 1709–1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning He is not that goose and Ass that Valla would make him.

To cause (to do something); to compel (to do something).

• You're making her cry.
• I was made to feel like a criminal.

To force to do.

• The teacher made the student study harder.
• Don’t let them make you suffer.

To indicate or suggest to be.

• His past mistakes don’t make him a bad person.

To cover neatly with bedclothes.

slanggovernmentlaw-enforcementTo recognise, identify, spot.

• 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.

To arrive at a destination, usually at or by a certain time.

• We should make Cincinnati by 7 tonight.
• I won't be able to make dinner; something's come up at work.

To proceed (in a direction).

• They made westward over the snowy mountains.
• Make for the hills! It's a wildfire!

To cover (a given distance) by travelling.

• 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.

To move at (a speed).

• The ship could make 20 knots an hour in calm seas.
• This baby can make 220 miles an hour.

To appoint; to name.

• On November 15, 1396,[…]Benedict XIII made him bishop of Noyon;

slangTo induct into the Mafia or a similar organization (as a made man).

• Jimmy Conway: They're gonna make him. Henry Hill: Paulie's gonna make you?

To defecate or urinate.

• 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!

To earn, to gain (money, points, membership or status).

• They hope to make a bigger profit.
• He didn't make the choir after his voice changed.

To achieve coverage in; to appear in.

• The special classes seemed to help because, Mrs. Zinmer recalled with some pride, in the seventh grade he made the honor roll.
• Ordinary New York kinds of things happened to him. He was mugged in Central Park. Somebody stole his sport utility vehicle. Strangers talked to him on the subway. A friend of a friend got him Yankees tickets. But when it happened to Kennedy, it made the papers. He was public property for years: the tabloids long ago baptised him a Page One "Hunk."

To pay, to cover (an expense); chiefly used after expressions of inability.

• 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?

obsoleteTo compose verses; to write poetry; to versify.

• ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman to solace him some time, as I do when I make

To enact; to establish.

• 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.

To develop into; to prove to be.

• She'll make a fine president.
• Classical literature usually makes heavy reading.

To study or train so as to become (a profession); to grow up to be (something).

• He'll make a doctor one day.

To form or formulate in the mind.

• make plans
• made a questionable decision

To perform a feat.

• make a leap
• make a pass

To gain sufficient audience to warrant its existence.

• In the end, my class didn't make, which left me with a bit of free time.

obsoleteTo act in a certain manner; to have to do; to manage; to interfere; to be active; often in the phrase to meddle or make.

• a scurvy, jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make

obsoleteTo increase; to augment; to accrue.

obsoleteTo be engaged or concerned in.

• Gomez, what makest thou here, with a whole brotherhood of city bailiffs?

archaicTo cause to be (in a specified place), used after a subjective what.

• Footman. Madam! Mr. Dorimant! Lov. What makes him here?
• What makes her in the wood so late, A furlong from the castle gate?

To take the virginity of.

• 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!

To have sexual intercourse 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.

Of water, to flow toward land; to rise.

• 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.

backgammongamesTo establish two or more men on (a point) so that it cannot be captured.

slanggovernmentmilitarypoliticsA promotion.

• Sent back the list of makes with only Post and Hamilton on it. (Buckner had recommended 10 staff officers and 1 combat soldier!)

A homemade project, particularly one demonstrated on television.

• Blue Peter "make"

card-gamesgamesTurn to declare the trump for a hand (in bridge), or to shuffle the cards.

• 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.

ball-gamesbasketballgamesA made basket.

natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsThe closing of an electrical circuit.

• If the interrupter operated every 2 sec., the current would rise to 10 amp. and drop to zero with successive "makes" and "breaks."