make conversation
make conversation verb: to talk with someone out of courtesy, to pass time, or in an effort to engage with them socially.
Verb
make conversation (third-person singular simple present makes conversation, present participle making conversation, simple past and past participle made conversation)
- To talk with someone out of courtesy, to pass time, or in an effort to engage with them socially.
- They had their meals with Mr. Gibson and Molly, and were felt to be terribly in the way; Mr. Gibson not being a man who could make conversation, and hating the duty of talking under restraint.1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 3, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published...
- Lee felt that disaster lurked ahead, and he did his best to stave it off by making conversation.1923, Max Brand, chapter 18, in The Quest of Lee Garrison, New York: Leisure Books, published 1999, page 135
Forms of make conversation
| third-person singular present | makes conversation |
|---|---|
| present participle | making conversation |
| past participle | made conversation |
| past | made conversation |
Questions about make conversation
- What does make conversation mean?
- Make conversation means to talk with someone out of courtesy, to pass time, or in an effort to engage with them socially.
- What part of speech is make conversation?
- Make conversation is a verb.
- What is the past tense of make conversation?
- The past tense of make conversation is made conversation.
Words near make conversation in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: make conversation (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: “make conversation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_conversation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.