make of

British  

verb

1. to interpret as the meaning of

   what do you make of this news?

2. to produce or construct from

   houses made of brick

3. 1. not to understand

   2. to attribute little or no importance to

   3. to gain little or no benefit from

4. 1. (used with a negative) to make sense of

      he couldn't make much of her babble

   2. to give importance to

   3. to gain benefit from

   4. to pay flattering attention to

      the reporters made much of the film star

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Example Sentences

Conceits aren’t facts: “Heritage is not history,” to borrow the scholar David Lowenthal’s distinction, but instead “what people make of their history to make themselves feel good.”

From Salon

More than a century later, what are we to make of Roosevelt’s crowded life in the arena?

From The Wall Street Journal

What did the people in your life make of that disposition?

From Los Angeles Times

So what to make of Andrew Bailey sporting a rather exuberant festive tie full of Christmas trees at the moment he delivered his so-called "Santa cut"?

From BBC

Francisco and his wife, Lucia, left Mexico for a better life in the early 1900s, so it’s hard to imagine what they would make of their thoroughly Americanized descendants today.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• clarify
• construe
• decipher
• depict
• describe
• enact
• explain
• illustrate
• portray
• read
• solve
• translate
• understand
• view