Word.ws English Dictionary

putting the make on

putting the make on is the present participle and gerund of put the make on.

Meaning of put the make on

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
    Synonyms:
    flirt with, hit on, hustle

Questions about putting the make on

What is putting the make on the present participle and gerund of?
Putting the make on is the present participle and gerund of put the make on.

Words near putting the make on in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting the make on (page history and authors); 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: “putting the make on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/putting_the_make_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.