Definition of 'make'

You can use make with a wide range of nouns to indicate that someone performs an action or says something. For example, if you make a suggestion, you suggest something.

You can use make with certain nouns to indicate that someone does something well or badly. For example, if you make a success of something, you do it successfully, and if you make a mess of something, you do it very badly.

If you make as if to do something or make to do something, you behave in a way that makes it seem that you are just about to do it.

In cricket, if a player makes a particular number of runs, they score that number of runs. In baseball or American football, if a player makes a particular score, they achieve that score.

If something makes you do something, it causes you to do it.

If you make someone do something, you force them to do it.

You use make to talk about causing someone or something to be a particular thing or to have a particular quality. For example, to make someone a star means to cause them to become a star, and to make someone angry means to cause them to become angry.

If you say that one thing or person makes another seem, for example, small, stupid, or good, you mean that they cause them to seem small, stupid, or good in comparison, even though they are not.

If you make yourself understood, heard, or known, you succeed in getting people to understand you, hear you, or know that you are there.

If you make someone something, you appoint them to a particular job, role, or position.

If you make something into something else, you change it in some way so that it becomes that other thing.

To make a total or score a particular amount means to increase it to that amount.

When someone makes a friend or an enemy, someone becomes their friend or their enemy, often because of a particular thing they have done.

To make something means to produce, construct, or create it.

If someone makes a film or television programme, they are involved in creating or producing it.

If you make a meal or a drink, you prepare it.

If you make a note or list, you write something down in that form.

If you make rules or laws, you decide what these should be.

If you make money, you get it by working for it, by selling something, or by winning it.

If something makes something else, it is responsible for the success of that thing.

The make of something such as a car or radio is the name of the company that made it.

You can use make to say that someone or something has the right qualities for a particular task or role. For example, if you say that someone will make a good politician, you mean that they have the right qualities to be a good politician.

If people make a particular pattern such as a line or a circle, they arrange themselves in this way.

You can use make to say what two numbers add up to.

If someone makes a particular team or makes a particular high position, they do so well that they are put in that team or get that position.

If you make a place in or by a particular time, you get there in or by that time, often with some difficulty.

You use make it when saying what you calculate or guess an amount to be.

You use make it when saying what time your watch says it is.