Word.ws English Dictionary

makes for

makes for is the third-person singular simple present indicative of make for.

Meaning of make for

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To set out to go (somewhere); to move towards.
    • He makes for England, there to claim the crown.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    Synonyms:
    head for
  2. (idiomatic) To tend to produce or result in.
    • It was such a day as one dreams about, with that pleasant warmth in the air that makes for indolent content.1914, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, in The Pirate of Panama
  3. (idiomatic) To identify; to connect.
    • I don't agree, but they make him for a criminal.
  4. (idiomatic, rare) To confirm, favour, strengthen (an opinion, theory, etc.).
    • Secondly, we will examine the Cœlestiall Phœnomena that make for the Copernican Hypothesis, as if it were to prove absolutely victorious; […]1830, E.S. Carlos (translator), Galileo Galilei (author), “The Siderial Messenger”, reprinted in Louise Fargo Brown and George Barr Carson, Men and Centuries of European Civilization, Ayer Publishing...
  5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, for.
    • I made this picture for my Dad.

Questions about makes for

What is makes for the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Makes for is the third-person singular simple present indicative of make for.

Words near makes for in the dictionary

  1. makes fair weather
  2. makes fetch happen
  3. makes fish of one and flesh of another
  4. makes fish of one and fowl of another
  5. makes flexible
  6. makes for
  7. makes free with
  8. makes friendly
  9. makes friends
  10. makes fun of
  11. makes game of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: makes for (page history and authors); make for (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:

Cite this entry: “makes for.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/makes_for. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.