MAKE-OR-BREAK Definition & Meaning

make-or-break

[ meyk-er-breyk ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

either completely successful or utterly disastrous:
a make-or-break marketing policy.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of make-or-break¹

First recorded in 1915–20

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Idioms and Phrases

Cause either total success or total ruin, as in This assignment will make or break her as a reporter . This rhyming expression, first recorded in Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1840), has largely replaced the much older (16th-century) alliterative synonym make or mar , at least in America.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

France's Marine Le Pen faces a make-or-break moment on Monday, as a judge rules on whether she should be banned from the next presidential election.

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But it's being seen by many as a make-or-break title for French publisher Ubisoft, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

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The new release, seen by many as a make-or-break title for the French gaming giant, has already been delayed twice.

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It could be a make-or-break moment for Sheinbaum, who is less than five months into her six-year term as Mexico’s first female president.

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Make no mistake, this is a big — some might say make-or-break — year for the storied Arcadia track that many consider the most beautiful horse racing facility in the United States.

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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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