Word.ws English Dictionary

making a move

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

Meaning of make a move

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To take action.
  2. (India, UK, idiomatic) To depart from a place; to set off.
    • He swallowed hard on his tea. —Well, ah must be making a move. Thanks again.1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “The First Shag in Ages”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 149
  3. (idiomatic, often) To initiate a conversation or perform an action intended to engage the willing attention of a person in whom one has a romantic or sexual interest; to approach someone of romantic or sexual appeal in hopes of escalating to a romantic or sexual encounter or relationship.
    • [T]he video how-to site Howcast . . . breaks from its more staid counterparts, such as Expert Village and eHow, by injecting a necessary dose of humor. Come here to learn "how to make a move on a girl while watching a movie on a couch".2007, Anita Hamilton, “50 Best Websites 2008: Howcast”, in Time, retrieved 13 Jul 2014
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, move.

Questions about making a move

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

Words near making a move in the dictionary

  1. making a mistake
  2. making a mockery of
  3. making a monkey of
  4. making a monkey out of
  5. making a mountain out of a molehill
  6. making a move
  7. making a name for oneself
  8. making a night of it
  9. making a noise in the world
  10. making a nuisance of oneself
  11. making a pass

Source and license

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