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

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

Reuters reports Ha McNeill, a senior official at TSA, will tell Congress that TSA agents are “sleeping in their cars at airports to save gas money, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second and third jobs to make ends meet, all while expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public.”

From The Wall Street Journal

"Fuel prices rose but fares didn't, so they're losing money," the 35-year-old told AFP outside one of Manila's ubiquitous jeepney terminals, while conceding she was struggling to make ends meet herself.

From Barron's

The high cost of groceries, gas and rent in the Nashville area meant many employees struggled to make ends meet, and he worried that some would jump ship to nearby fast-food restaurants offering higher hourly pay.

From The Wall Street Journal

Some drove for a ride-share app in the evenings, to make ends meet in a country of widespread deprivation.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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