make ends meet

Cultural  

1. 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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make ends meet Idioms  

1. 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

Laura works 12-hour weekend night shifts as a carer in a nursing home and her husband is also in employment but, she says, the family struggles to make ends meet.

From BBC • Apr. 11, 2026

Officials from unions representing TSA workers said in recent weeks, workers have sold plasma, delivered groceries and signed up to drive for ride-hailing services to make ends meet.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

In Kolding, 42-year-old Afghan Wahida Abdul Mutaleb admitted she's struggling to make ends meet.

From Barron's • Mar. 19, 2026

When her Sevens contract was scrapped in 2020 as part of Covid cost-cutting measures, Jones worked as a delivery driver to make ends meet.

From BBC • Mar. 19, 2026

To make ends meet, Mama cooked for twenty farm workers who lived in Tent City.

From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez

Related Words

• collect
• conserve
• keep
• maintain
• manage
• spare
• store