make way
Idioms-
Allow room for passage, move aside, as in Please make way for the wheelchair . This expression was first recorded about 1200.
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Also, make way for . Leave room for a successor or substitute, as in It's time he retired and made way for some younger professor . [Mid-1700s]
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Progress, advance, as in Is this enterprise making way? [Late 1500s] For a synonym, see make headway .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One prominent Paramount executive, Cindy Holland, resigned last week to make way for Bloys to run the streaming programming for the combined company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Next up is a driverless Caterpillar compactor with spiked steel wheels that will run over a programmed course, flattening fresh layers of refuse to make way for additional waste.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Liber said at least 25 villages will be demolished to make way for it.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
The region lost almost 160,000 hectares of forest area in 2025, more than one-third of the nationwide figure – much of it to make way for plantations and monocrop agriculture.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
We moved aside to make way, but some stayed on board, and we found space between them as we clambered aboard.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
