make ends meet

Meaning

1. Oxford100% of films

   to earn just enough money to be able to buy the things you need

   With both parents working to make ends meet...

   I don't know how we're gonna make it on that paycheck he's talking about, and he got you serving drinks at his party just to make ends meet.

In the movies · 3

• Hear that? He's trying to make ends meet...American History X1998
• I don't know how we're gonna make it on that paycheck he's talking about, and he got you serving drinks at his party just to make ends meet.Something the Lord Made2004
• With both parents working to make ends meet...Take the Money and Run1969
• Just trying to make ends meet,Shutter Island2010
• Mom was pulling in tricks to make ends meet.Not Another Teen Movie2001
• It's the number of times we zero out our bank account each year to make ends meet.Cheaper by the Dozen2003
• We all live and train upstairs and run a club downstairs to make ends meet.Step Up 3D2010
• I just didn't think I would end up a single mom, struggling to make ends meet.A Simple Favor2018

Learn it in full scenes

• American History X1998
  • Sweeney Makes Danny a Deal
  • Derek Vinyard's TV Interview
  • The Basketball Court Bet

From the same entry

• at the end of the day
• a bad end
• be at the end of
• be at the end of your tether
• be the end
• an end in itself
• the end justifies the means
• the end of the line
• end of story
• end to end
• get your end away
• go to the ends of the earth

More idioms

• nine to five
• turn over a new leaf
• how about
• feel sick to your stomach
• run in the family
• get straight
• in place
• in vain
• in public
• and things
• it will cost you
• any day