make-or-break

[ meyk-er-breyk ]

adjective

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

Origin of make-or-break

First recorded in 1915–20

Words Nearby make-or-break

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use make-or-break in a sentence

Sunday's episode illustrated both the peril and the promise of Homeland's make-or-break moment.
‘Homeland’ Is Finally Back On Track with Season 3’s Penultimate Episode, “Big Man in Tehran” | Andrew Romano | December 9, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
What I do deny, vigorously, is that this is a make-or-break moment.
End Times for Obama? Why This Crisis Will Also Pass | Michael Tomasky | November 9, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
No one seemed to expect Jon Tester to pull it out, but it was no longer a make-or-break race.
Partying With the Senate Democrats: The Party’s Newest Stars | Michelle Cottle | November 7, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Spain is reeling precariously, Greece is prepping for another make-or-break election—and Germany is still insisting on austerity.
Germany Must Pay Europe’s Tab If It Wants to Keep the Union Together | Louise Armitstead | June 8, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
The southern provinces are where the make-or-break struggle for Afghanistan's Pashtuns is taking place.
Bin Laden's Death Heightens Tensions in Kabul | Ann Marlowe | May 3, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST

Other 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.

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