make out


verb(adverb)
  1. (tr) to discern or perceive: can you make out that house in the distance?

  2. (tr) to understand or comprehend: I can't make out this letter

  1. (tr) to write out: he made out a cheque

  2. (tr) to attempt to establish or prove: he made me out to be a liar

  3. (intr) to pretend: he made out that he could cook

  4. (intr) to manage or fare: how did you make out in the contest?

  5. (intr often foll by with) informal, mainly US and Canadian to engage in necking or petting: Alan is making out with Jane

Words Nearby make out

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use make out in a sentence

  • Who he could not make out, except that it was a Kirton: and it prayed him to hasten down immediately.

    Elster's Folly | Mrs. Henry Wood
  • Well, old boy, I guess you lost me more than I'll make out of you; but you've given me what I ought to have had three years ago!

    The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
  • I could not make out what it was, for the wind-was rustling the corn-shocks, but I arose and feigned to listen.

  • He stopped in the road and turned towards his companion, the shining of whose eyes he could just make out in the gloom.

    Three More John Silence Stories | Algernon Blackwood
  • And she thanked Heaven that in the dusk and in the shadow where she stood he could but ill make out her face.

    St. Martin's Summer | Rafael Sabatini

Other Idioms and Phrases with make out

make out

Discern or see, especially with difficulty, as in I can hardly make out the number on the door. [Mid-1700s]

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