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

“There are so many stories of teachers working two or three jobs because they are trying to figure out how to pay for their healthcare and how they are going to make ends meet,” Vaccaro said.

From The Wall Street Journal

"It is sad to lose 37 miners who were struggling to make ends meet. We're disturbed by the incident."

From BBC

This, in turn, is hindering the Bank of Japan, which is engaged in a massive program of quantitative easing — i.e., printing money — to make ends meet.

From MarketWatch

Duvall subsequently moved to New York to study acting, working as a postal clerk to make ends meet.

From BBC

Even those in work are struggling to make ends meet, data shows, with almost one in five people in Bradford claiming Universal Credit to help with living costs.

From BBC

Related Words

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