Word.ws English Dictionary

make do and mend

/ˈmeɪk ˈduː ən ˈmɛnd/

make do and mend verb: to follow a philosophy, during World War II, of repairing clothes etc that would normally be discarded due to shortages and rationing.

make do and mend: to follow a philosophy, during World War II, of repairing clothes etc that would normally be...
Image: Board of Trade (publisher/sponsor), Nachshen, Donia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

make do and mend (third-person singular simple present makes do and mends, present participle making do and mending, simple past and past participle made do and mended)

  1. (UK) To follow a philosophy, during World War II, of repairing clothes etc that would normally be discarded due to shortages and rationing.
    • The 'make do and mend' campaign was the Board of Trade's central propaganda effort directed at housewives. It gave advice on preservation, renovation, and repair of clothing and other household goods.2000 Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska - Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls, and Consumption, 1939-1955
  2. (UK, idiomatic) Generally, to repair and reuse.
  3. (UK, idiomatic) To make the best of a situation.

make do and mend meaning in Bengali

make do and mend in Bengali

সাধারণভাবে, একটি পরিস্থিতির সদ্ব্যবহার করা

Forms of make do and mend

third-person singular presentmakes do and mends
present participlemaking do and mending
past participlemade do and mended
pastmade do and mended

Origin of make do and mend

From the title of a booklet issued by the UK Ministry of Information.

Questions about make do and mend

What does make do and mend mean?
Make do and mend means to follow a philosophy, during World War II, of repairing clothes etc that would normally be discarded due to shortages and rationing.
What is make do and mend in Bengali?
Make do and mend in Bengali is সাধারণভাবে, একটি পরিস্থিতির সদ্ব্যবহার করা. See Make do and mend meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is make do and mend?
Make do and mend is a verb.
How do you pronounce make do and mend?
Make do and mend is pronounced /ˈmeɪk ˈduː ən ˈmɛnd/.
What is the past tense of make do and mend?
The past tense of make do and mend is made do and mended.

Words near make do and mend in the dictionary

  1. make conscience
  2. make contact with
  3. make conversation
  4. make default
  5. make do
  6. make do and mend
  7. make down
  8. make due
  9. make ends meet
  10. make every effort
  11. make eyes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make do and mend (page history and authors); make do and mend (Bengali Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-make do and mend.wav.

Cite this entry: “make do and mend.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_do_and_mend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.