Word.ws English Dictionary

making a living

making a living is the present participle and gerund of make a living.

Meaning of make a living

Verb

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

  1. To earn enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family.
    • You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, made a good living.1972 March 14, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, spoken by Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), Paramount Pictures
  2. To manage to find enough food to survive.

Questions about making a living

What is making a living the present participle and gerund of?
Making a living is the present participle and gerund of make a living.

Words near making a living in the dictionary

  1. making a joke of
  2. making a killing
  3. making a leg
  4. making a light
  5. making a lip
  6. making a living
  7. making a long arm
  8. making a mark
  9. making a meal of
  10. making a meal out of
  11. making a mistake

Source and license

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