make out

phrasal verb

9 meanings of make out

1
kissphrasal verbslangUSintransitive
To embrace and kiss passionately.
Two teenagers were making out in the back row of the movie theater.
They used to make out in his car in the school parking lot.
Similarkiss, snog, smooch, neck
Note
The partner follows with: she made out with him at the party, while a couple simply make out together. Neck says much the same thing. Anything beyond kissing and embracing belongs to the heavier sense.
2
discernphrasal verbtransitive
To discern something; to manage to see, hear or understand it.
I couldn't make out what she was saying over the music.
The detective made out a faint signature at the bottom of the page.
Similardiscern, decipher, distinguish, understand, see
Note
The verb implies effort against distance, darkness or noise, so it keeps company with could, couldn't and just: I could just make out a shadowy figure. Hearing counts as much as seeing; in J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet (1898), the hidden narrator makes out one voice as Master Ratsey's.
3
write (check)phrasal verbtransitive
To draw up a document; in particular, to fill in a check naming who is to be paid.
Please make out the check to the City Water Department.
The lawyer made out a new contract with the changes we had asked for.
Similarwrite, draft
Note
The person or company who gets paid follows to: make the check out to the school. The object can sit between the two words or after them, but a pronoun must go between: make it out to the landlord, never make out it. Receipts and invoices are made out the same way.
4
portrayphrasal verbtransitive or intransitive
To represent someone or something in a particular way, or to make something appear true.
The newspapers made him out to be a hero, but his neighbors knew better.
Don't make out like this is all my fault.
Similarportray, depict, paint
Note
Two constructions carry this sense. With an object it usually takes to be, which can be dropped: his story makes me out (to be) the bad guy. Without one it is followed by like or that: making out like we'd never stopped being friends. Either way the speaker usually doubts the picture being painted.
5
farephrasal verbdialectalUSintransitive
To manage or get along; to fare in a particular way, well or badly.
How did you make out at the job interview?
Without a car, we made out fine by taking the bus everywhere.
Similarfare, manage, cope
Note
The United States is where this sense now lives, often as a friendly question after an event, how did you make out?, and the answer says how things went: we made out fine, they made out all right in the end. Hart Crane, in a letter of 1931, hoped to economize and make out very well without outside help.
6
have sexphrasal verbslangUSintransitive
To engage in passionate kissing and caressing, or to go as far as having sex.
Note
The vaguest of the phrase's meanings: it covers anything from heavy petting to intercourse without saying which. That vagueness is its use, since a speaker can hint at sex while leaving the details unsaid, and only context tells whether kissing and embracing is all that is meant.
7
phrasal verbslangUSintransitive
To get along with someone.
The two partners made out well enough to run the business together for thirty years.
The sales and design departments don't make out, and every joint meeting ends in shouting.
Note
This chiefly American slang nearly always needs an adverb or a negative to land: the partners made out well; the two departments don't make out. With two people as the subject it can be heard as the kissing sense, so it reads most clearly of teams, offices or business partners.
8
live for a whilephrasal verbslangUSintransitive
To make a home somewhere, often a temporary one.
After the fire, the family made out in a church basement for two weeks.
The crew will make out in an old trailer on the site until the cabins are finished.
Similarstay, live, camp, lodge
Note
The place follows with in, as in make out in this room for the night, and it is usually a stopgap: a spare room, a church basement, a trailer on a building site. Leave the place unsaid and a listener may take it for managing or getting by instead.

Less common meaning

9
send outphrasal verbobsoletetransitive
To send someone or something out.
The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
Note
The obsolete sending sense survives in the King James Bible of 1611, where the Chaldeans "made out three bands", that is, sent out three raiding parties, and fell upon the camels. A modern reader would hear catching sight of something in the same words, which is why the verse now needs explaining.

Practice

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