MAKE ENDS MEET Definition & Meaning

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make ends meet

To earn enough income to provide for basic needs: “The workers complained that on their present wages they could hardly make ends meet, let alone enjoy any luxuries.”

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Idioms and Phrases

Manage so that one's financial means are enough for one's needs, as in On that salary Enid had trouble making ends meet . This expression originated as make both ends meet , a translation from the French joindre les deux bouts (by John Clarke, 1639). The ends , it is assumed, allude to the sum total of income and expenditures. However, naval surgeon and novelist Tobias Smollett had it as “make the two ends of the year meet” ( Roderick Random , 1748), thought to go back to the common practice of splicing rope ends together in order to cut shipboard expenses.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen said increased prize money would be particularly welcomed by lower-ranked players, who can struggle to make ends meet at other times of the year.

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Across the country, vulnerable people under direct threat by Trump — immigrants, trans people, those who depend on government support in order to be able to make ends meet, and so many more — are showing incredible bravery.

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Lyft driver Yasha Timenovich, 48, who began driving in 2014, said he works 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and yet still struggles to make ends meet.

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Now it provides power for around 15,000 people in the local area but the project hasn't been able to make ends meet because of slow take-up from the community.

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But all the while, Love was shooting commercials and music videos and trying to get consulting gigs to make ends meet.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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