Word.ws English Dictionary

put the make on

put the make on verb: to pursue with romantic interest, especially in an aggressive, sexually suggestive manner.

Verb

put the make on (third-person singular simple present puts the make on, present participle putting the make on, simple past and past participle put the make on)

  1. (informal, transitive) To pursue with romantic interest, especially in an aggressive, sexually suggestive manner.
    • I met a lesbian friend of Liz's, Dawn, who promptly put the make on me & I figured it's about time I tried it.1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
    • His girl—the one he has been trying unsuccessfully to put the make on—hears the longing and the edge of desperation in his voice and kisses him on the cheek.1978, "High Steppin' to stardom (Film review of Saturday Night Fever)," Time, 3 Apr.
    Synonyms:
    flirt with, hit on, hustle

Synonyms of put the make on

Forms of put the make on

third-person singular presentputs the make on
present participleputting the make on
past participleput the make on
pastput the make on
alternative formput the moves on

Origin of put the make on

From make (“love interest, spouse, mate”).

Questions about put the make on

What does put the make on mean?
Put the make on means to pursue with romantic interest, especially in an aggressive, sexually suggestive manner.
What part of speech is put the make on?
Put the make on is a verb.
What is the past tense of put the make on?
The past tense of put the make on is put the make on.

Words near put the make on in the dictionary

  1. put the kibosh on
  2. put the kybosh on
  3. put the last hand to
  4. put the lid on
  5. put the lie to
  6. put the make on
  7. put the miller's eye out
  8. put the moves on
  9. put the pedal to the medal
  10. put the pedal to the metal
  11. put the plug in the jug

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put the make on (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: “put the make on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_the_make_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.