DEFINITIONS
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make-or-break

[ meyk-er-breyk ]
/ ˈmeɪk ərˈbreɪk /

adjective

either completely successful or utterly disastrous: a make-or-break marketing policy.

Content related to make-or-break

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Words nearby make-or-break

make with, make-ahead, make-and-break, make-believe, make-do, make-or-break, make-peace, make-ready, make-up, make-work, makeba

Origin of make-or-break

First recorded in 1915–20
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Idioms and Phrases with make or break

make or break

Cause either total success or total ruin, as in This assignment will make or break her as a reporter. This rhyming expression, first recorded in Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1840), has largely replaced the much older (16th-century) alliterative synonym make or mar, at least in America.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.