Word.ws English Dictionary

making do

making do is the present participle and gerund of make do.

Meaning of make do

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal, intransitive) To survive, get by (with), or use whatever is available (due to lack of resources).
    • There is barely enough money, so we will have to make do with what we have.
  2. (informal, transitive) To put into action.
    • Make the movie do! (Put on the movie!)
  3. (informal, transitive) To use for one's purpose something worn, defective, or intended for another purpose.
    • A poor screw-driver is one of the most exasperating of poor tools, and a trial to one's patience and temper; besides, it is of little use attempting to "make it do," for it seldom will do.1902, Lina Beard with Adelia Belle Beard, What a girl can make and do: new ideas for work and play, page 7

Questions about making do

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

Words near making do in the dictionary

  1. making capital out of
  2. making certain
  3. making common cause
  4. making contact with
  5. making conversation
  6. making do
  7. making do and mending
  8. making down
  9. making ends meet
  10. making eyes
  11. making faces

Source and license

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