made

Pluralmades

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of make.

   The committee made several changes to the proposal.

   These wooden bowls were made entirely by hand.

   Note

   One form does double duty for the past and the participle: she made dinner, the bowls were made by hand, he has made changes. It looks irregular, but it began as a regular verb. Old English had macode and macod, and Middle English still used makede and maked alongside the shortened made and maad. The short form won, and it now serves every sense of make, from building a house to cooking a meal.

2. 2
   nounobsoleteUK

   A grub or maggot: the soft, legless larva of a fly or similar insect.

   Much like the maggots that turn up in meat left out too long.

   The old fisherman threaded a made onto his hook before casting.

   The forgotten ham in the larder was riddled with mades.

   Note

   A word that has nothing to do with making. It descends from Old English maþu, from a root that covered worms, grubs, caterpillars and moths. Its cousins are Dutch made and German Made, both still meaning "maggot." In English it survives only in UK dialect or older writing, so a reader who meets mades in an old text should think larvae, not the past of make.

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