Phrasal verbs with make

What does ‘make’ mean?

The word ‘make‘ can mean many different things. As a verb, the meaning is to create by combining things or cause something to happen.

For example:

• I made blanket out of some old socks. (create)
• The hurricane made the roof break. (cause)

 

Make is an irregular verb. The past tense is made and the past participle is made.

phrasal verbs with make

Phrasal verbs with ‘make’ include:

• make do with
  meaning – manage with limited or inadequate resources
  example – I forgot to buy carrots, we’ll have to make do with peas and broccoli.
• make for/towards
  meaning – head in a certain direction
  example – The thief grabbed the money bag and made towards the door.
• make into
  meaning – change into something else
  example – The old corner shop has been made into flats.
• make it up to
  meaning – be nice to/do something for someone as you did something wrong
  example – I made it up to my girlfriend for forgetting her birthday by buying her an expensive necklace.
• make off with
  meaning – steal something
  example – Watch those two guys. I think they’re going to make off with something.
• make out
  meaning – pretend, kiss and fondle or be able to understand something
  example – Paul is making out he’s an angel but, I saw him steal £5 from my mum’s purse.
• make up
  meaning – invent something or stop being angry and forgive someone
  example – Jamie got an A* for making up a great story about futuristic robots.
• make up for
  meaning – compensate
  example – Banks made up for his own goal by scoring a hat trick.
• make up to
  meaning – increase a sum or put right something you did wrong
  example – I’ll buy Wayne some aftershave then that’ll make his present up to £20.

picture phrasal verbs with make

Let’s learn the meaning of the phrasal verbs that contain the verb ‘make’ in more detail and see some examples in use.

You can download a table of phrasal verbs with make below.

Did you know that many idiomatic expressions (idioms) in English also contain a lot of verbs? Just like phrasal verbs, idioms are a major part of the English language (slang in particular). They are used constantly amongst native English speakers and are handy to know and understand.

 

Now you’ve learnt all the phrasal verbs with make, how about learning the idioms with make too?