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

See Examples For:

make ends meet

I am 72 years old and still working two jobs to make ends meet.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026

We meet the Pierces as Mildred is struggling to make ends meet.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

To make ends meet, he held down a job working eight hours a day operating a laser machine in a factory.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

A woman who receives free hot meals from a cafe says she is struggling to make ends meet on universal credit.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

Like many other poor students at the time, Hooke also helped to make ends meet by working as servant to one of the wealthier undergraduates.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin

Related Words

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