Word.ws English Dictionary

made it

made it is the simple past and past participle of make it.

Meaning of make it

Verb

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

  1. To succeed in doing something, for example in reaching a place, going somewhere, attending an event, arriving in time for something, adding to one's schedule or itinerary, or in getting where one wants to be in one's life or career, which sometimes means becoming or wanting to become successful (succeed in a big way) or famous.
    • He never made it to Italy despite talking about it all his life.
  2. To succeed in surviving, in living through something.
    • Don’t die, pal. You’re gonna make it little buddy. Come on, man. We’re gonna help you, and you’re gonna make it.1980, Will D. Campbell, Brother to a Dragonfly
  3. To have sexual intercourse.
    • Iris Steensma (Jodie Foster): “Listen, we better make it or Sport’ll get mad. So how do you wanna make it?”
    • Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro): “I don’t wanna make it. Who’s Sport?”
    • Iris Steensma: “Oh, that’s Matthew. I call him Sport. Wanna make it like this? (starts to unbuckle belt)[…] “Don't you want to make it?”
    • Travis Bickle: “No I don’t wanna make it. I wanna help you” […]
    • Iris Steensma: “Listen, we don’t have to make it mister.”1976, Paul Schrader, 01:21:04 from the start, in Martin Scorsese, director, Taxi Driver (film)
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, it.
    • The blisters on my foot made it a problem to walk without a cane.

Questions about made it

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

Words near made it in the dictionary

  1. made in China
  2. made in Japan
  3. made in the shade
  4. made interesting
  5. made into
  6. made it
  7. made it big
  8. made it count
  9. made it interesting
  10. made it one's business
  11. made it one's life

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: made it (page history and authors); make it (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 it.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/made_it. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.