Word.ws English Dictionary

make something of oneself

make something of oneself verb: to become successful on one's own initiative.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To become successful on one's own initiative.
    • He moved to the big smoke when he was 17 to make something of himself.

Forms of make something of oneself

third-person singular presentmakes something of oneself
present participlemaking something of oneself
past participlemade something of oneself
pastmade something of oneself

Questions about make something of oneself

What does make something of oneself mean?
Make something of oneself means to become successful on one's own initiative.
What part of speech is make something of oneself?
Make something of oneself is a verb.
What is the past tense of make something of oneself?
The past tense of make something of oneself is made something of oneself.

Words near make something of oneself in the dictionary

  1. make someone's skin creep
  2. make someone's teeth itch
  3. make someone's toenails curl
  4. make someone's toes curl
  5. make something of
  6. make something of oneself
  7. make sport of
  8. make strange
  9. make streaks
  10. make strides
  11. make sure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make something of oneself (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-make something of oneself.ogg.

Cite this entry: “make something of oneself.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_something_of_oneself. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.