Word.ws English Dictionary

made a living

made a living is the simple past and past participle of make a living.

Meaning of make a living

Verb

make a living (third-person singular simple present makes a living, present participle making a living, simple past and past participle made a living)

  1. To earn enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family.
    • You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, made a good living.1972 March 14, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, spoken by Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), Paramount Pictures
  2. To manage to find enough food to survive.

Questions about made a living

What is made a living the simple past and past participle of?
Made a living is the simple past and past participle of make a living.

Words near made a living in the dictionary

  1. made a joke of
  2. made a killing
  3. made a leg
  4. made a light
  5. made a lip
  6. made a living
  7. made a long arm
  8. made a mark
  9. made a meal of
  10. made a meal out of
  11. made a mistake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: made a living (page history and authors); make a living (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “made a living.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/made_a_living. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.