Word.ws English Dictionary

makes good

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

Meaning of 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
    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.
  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.
  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

Questions about makes good

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

Words near makes good in the dictionary

  1. makes friendly
  2. makes friends
  3. makes fun of
  4. makes game of
  5. makes garden
  6. makes good
  7. makes good on
  8. makes good one's running
  9. makes good time
  10. makes ground
  11. makes happen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: makes good (page history and authors); make good (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: “makes good.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/makes_good. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.