Word.ws English Dictionary

making do and mending

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

Meaning of make do and mend

Verb

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

  1. (UK) To follow a philosophy, during World War II, of repairing clothes etc that would normally be discarded due to shortages and rationing.
    • The 'make do and mend' campaign was the Board of Trade's central propaganda effort directed at housewives. It gave advice on preservation, renovation, and repair of clothing and other household goods.2000 Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska - Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls, and Consumption, 1939-1955
  2. (UK, idiomatic) Generally, to repair and reuse.
  3. (UK, idiomatic) To make the best of a situation.

Questions about making do and mending

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

Words near making do and mending in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: making do and mending (page history and authors); make do and mend (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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