make out

make out
1) do, progress

How did you make out at your job interview yesterday?

2) understand, interpret

I can never make out what he wants to say when he phones me.

3) distinguish, identify

The ship captain couldn't make out the other boat because of the fog.

4) make someone believe, show, prove

He made out that he was at the library last night but I know that he wasn't.

5) (smth) - manage to see or read something

I was unable to make out the sign because I didn't have my glasses.

to understand

From the bedroom Mary was calling but the noise of the storm was too loud for him to make out what she was saying. (G. Gordon)

The provoking thing was that, though they had been about Together and met a number of times and really talked, Bertha couldn't make her out. (K. Mansfield)

You are a funny boy, can't make you out at all, Johnny, I can't make you out. (A. Coppard)


Idioms and examples. 2014.

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Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • make out — [v1] see, recognize detect, discern, discover, distinguish, espy, notice, observe, perceive, remark; concept 626 Ant. fail make out [v2] understand accept, catch, collect, compass, comprehend, conclude, decipher, deduce, deduct, derive, dig,… …   New thesaurus

  • make out — (v.) c.1600, get along, from MAKE (Cf. make) (v.) + OUT (Cf. out). Sense of understand is from 1640s; sexual sense first recorded 1939 …   Etymology dictionary

  • make out — ► make out 1) manage with difficulty to see, hear, or understand. 2) represent as or pretend. 3) draw up (a list or document). 4) informal make progress; fare. Main Entry: ↑make …   English terms dictionary

  • make out — index detect, discern (detect with the senses), hear (perceive by ear), note (notice), perceive, pierce (discern) …   Law dictionary

  • make out — 1) PHRASAL VERB If you make something out, you manage with difficulty to see or hear it. [V P n (not pron)] I could just make out a tall, pale, shadowy figure tramping through the undergrowth... [V n P] She thought she heard a name. She couldn t… …   English dictionary

  • make out — verb 1. detect with the senses (Freq. 8) The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards I can t make out the faces in this photograph • Syn: ↑spot, ↑recognize, ↑recognise, ↑distinguish, ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

  • make out — phrasal verb Word forms make out : present tense I/you/we/they make out he/she/it makes out present participle making out past tense made out past participle made out 1) a) [transitive] to see, hear, or understand someone or something with… …   English dictionary

  • make out — {v.} 1. To write the facts asked for (as in an application blank or a report form); fill out. * /The teacher made out the report cards and gave them to the students to take home./ * /Mrs. Smith gave the clerk in the store some money and the clerk …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • make out — {v.} 1. To write the facts asked for (as in an application blank or a report form); fill out. * /The teacher made out the report cards and gave them to the students to take home./ * /Mrs. Smith gave the clerk in the store some money and the clerk …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • make\ out — v 1. To write the facts asked for (as in an application blank or a report form); fill out. The teacher made out the report cards and gave them to the students to take home. Mrs. Smith gave the clerk in the store some money and the clerk made out… …   Словарь американских идиом

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