Make out (original) (raw)

I. (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Comprehend

Example:

I cannot make out what this politician is saying

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

understand (know and comprehend the nature or meaning of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Try to establish

Example:

She made out that she know nothing about the crime

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

claim (assert or affirm strongly; state to be true or existing)

Sentence frame:

It ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 3

Meaning:

Imply or suggest

Example:

Your remarks make me out to be stupid

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

intimate; suggest (imply as a possibility)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Write all the required information onto a form

Example:

make out a form

Synonyms:

complete; fill in; fill out; make out

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

"Make out" entails doing...:

get down; put down; set down; write down (put down in writing; of texts, musical compositions, etc.)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make out and issue

Example:

Please make the check out to me

Synonyms:

cut; issue; make out; write out

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

write (communicate or express by writing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

check (write out a check on a bank account)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

The banks make out the check

Sense 6

Meaning:

Kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion

Example:

The couple were necking in the back seat of the car

Synonyms:

make out; neck

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

pet (stroke or caress gently)

Verb group:

bang; be intimate; bed; bonk; do it; eff; fuck; get it on; get laid; have a go at it; have intercourse; have it away; have it off; have sex; hump; jazz; know; lie with; love; make love; make out; roll in the hay; screw; sleep together; sleep with (have sexual intercourse with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

smooch; spoon (snuggle and lie in a position where one person faces the back of the others)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 7

Meaning:

Have sexual intercourse with

Example:

Were you ever intimate with this man?

Synonyms:

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

copulate; couple; mate; pair (engage in sexual intercourse)

Verb group:

make out; neck (kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

have; take (have sex with; archaic use)

fornicate (have sex without being married)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 8

Meaning:

Detect with the senses

Example:

I can't make out the faces in this photograph

Synonyms:

discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

"Make out" entails doing...:

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

resolve (make clearly visible)

discriminate (distinguish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 9

Meaning:

Succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available

Example:

They made do on half a loaf of bread every day

Synonyms:

contend; cope; deal; get by; grapple; make do; make out; manage

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

extemporize; improvise (manage in a makeshift way; do with whatever is at hand)

fend (try to manage without help)

cut; hack (be able to manage or manage successfully)

rub along; scrape along; scrape by; scratch along; squeak by; squeeze by (manage one's existence barely)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 10

Meaning:

Proceed or get along

Example:

He's come a long way

Synonyms:

come; do; fare; get along; make out

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

go; proceed (follow a certain course)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s Adjective/Noun
Somebody ----s Adjective

Credits

Context examples:

At the opening of one of these something white was shimmering, but I was unable to make out what it was.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She often says, when the letter is first opened, 'Well, Hetty, now I think you will be put to it to make out all that checker-work'—don't you, ma'am?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I was some little way off, so that I could not make out the features, but there was something unnatural and inhuman about the face.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So far as I can make out, it is nothing more exciting than an Abbey’s accounts dating from the second half of the fifteenth century.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The blind was up and the window shut, but I could just make out the bushes on the lawn, and it seemed to me for a moment that I saw something moving among them.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How long it had been carrying on between them, however, he was equally at a loss with herself to make out; for at Oxford, where he had remained for choice ever since his quitting London, he had had no means of hearing of her but from herself, and her letters to the very last were neither less frequent, nor less affectionate than usual.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Rushworth was eager to assure her ladyship of his acquiescence, and tried to make out something complimentary; but, between his submission to her taste, and his having always intended the same himself, with the superadded objects of professing attention to the comfort of ladies in general, and of insinuating that there was one only whom he was anxious to please, he grew puzzled, and Edmund was glad to put an end to his speech by a proposal of wine.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A puff of wind was heeling the boat over till the deck was awash, and he, one hand on tiller and the other on main-sheet, was luffing slightly, at the same time peering ahead to make out the near-lying north shore.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I could not make out what that was.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

How he done it, not a man aboard us could make out.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)