make good

Verb

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

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To achieve substantial success in life, often in business.
   • Near-synonym: come good
   • America does vaguely feel a man making good as something analogous to a man being good or a man doing good.1925, Gilbert K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America, page 94

   Synonyms:

   come good

2. (intransitive, transitive, with-on) To complete successfully; to fulfil (a promise).
   • He made good his threat and made good his escape by jumping from a second-story window.
   • He made good on his threat to jump from a second-story window.
3. To match the first player's bet with one's own, rather than dropping out.
   • After all the players who determine to go in have made good the bet of the player who opened the Jack Pot, and the hands have been filled […]1885, William Brisbane Dick, The American Hoyle: Or, Gentleman's Hand-book of Games
4. (intransitive, transitive, with-on) To remedy or compensate for (a defect or deficiency).
   • The company made good the damage by paying my repair costs.
   • The company made good on the damage by paying my repair costs.
5. (idiomatic) To make (a surface) level or even.
   • […] the only action that will be required prior to decoration will be to wash down, make good and apply a fresh paint system.2005, Roy Hughes, Painting and Decorating, page 44