make ends meet

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.”

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

At the Grumpy Cook people are able to pay what they can afford or even eat for free in a way that he said gave them dignity if they were struggling to make ends meet.

Read more on BBC

Steep fertilizer costs and low soybean prices have made it hard to make ends meet this year.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

That’s a broad swath of Californians — including many bartenders and hairdressers, small business owners and their employees, farmers and farm workers, freelancers, ride-share drivers, and those working multiple part-time gigs to make ends meet.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Meanwhile, those moved from camps into temporary housing say that while they now have a roof over their heads, they still struggle to make ends meet as livelihood remains a concern.

Read more on BBC

The college’s students typically arrive as working adults and often are struggling to make ends meet.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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