Word.ws English Dictionary

on the make

on the make prepositional phrase: actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (informal) Actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship.
    • Harry (Matthew Cowles) and Tim (Timothy Meyers) are an inseparable pair of macho punks always on the make for an easy sexual score.1973 November 26, T. E. Kalem, “The Theatre: Savage Mating Dance”, in Time
  2. (broadly, informal) Actively seeking an opportunity for self-advancement; eager to ingratiate oneself to others in order to secure some advantage.
    • In a city where everybody was "hustling," everybody, as they phrased it, "on the make," why should anyone take a second glance at Peter Gudge?1920, Upton Sinclair, chapter 1, in 100%: The Story of a Patriot
    • She said that anyone under the age of thirty living in a resort community was on the make somehow: “pimping, dealing, hooking, detoxing, escaping, scamming, or what have you.”1991, Douglas Coupland, “It Can't Last”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 36

Origin of on the make

From make (“companion, spouse, mate”), related to match (“counterpart, partner”).

Words formed from on the make

Questions about on the make

What does on the make mean?
On the make means actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship.
What part of speech is on the make?
On the make is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the make in the dictionary

  1. on the line
  2. on the lines of
  3. on the lookout
  4. on the loose
  5. on the low
  6. on the make
  7. on the march
  8. on the mark
  9. on the market
  10. on the mat
  11. on the mend

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the make (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on the make.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the make.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_make. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.