make up

Formsmakes up, making up, made up

1. 1
   inventphrasal verbtransitive

   To invent or fabricate a story, excuse, claim, or the like.

   The witness later admitted she had made up the entire account.

   Advertisers sometimes make up statistics that no study ever produced.

   Similarinvent, fabricate, concoct, fake, manufacture

2. 2
   form a wholephrasal verbtransitive

   To be the components that together constitute a whole.

   Immigrants and their children make up nearly a quarter of the city's population.

   The alloy is made up of copper, tin, and a trace of zinc.

   Similarform, compose, constitute, comprise

   Note

   The parts take the subject slot and the whole is the object: twelve members make up the committee. Put the whole first and the verb turns passive with of, as in a complex made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom. Compose and form do the same work in a more formal register.

3. 3
   reconcilephrasal verbtransitive or intransitive

   To resolve or settle an argument, dispute, or fight, as with the person one has fallen out with.

   The partners made up their differences and reopened the shop together.

   She refused to make up with him until he apologized in front of everyone.

   Similarreconcile, settle, resolve

   Oppositequarrel

   Note

   Two people make up, or one makes up with the other; when there is an object, it is the quarrel itself, as in making up their differences. Al Green's Let's Stay Together (1971) sets it against its natural opposite: people break up, turn around and make up. Frances Burney's journals already have it in 1782: Miss Palmer and I made up.

4. 4
   compensatephrasal verbintransitive

   To compensate for a loss, shortfall, or fault.

   The hotel offered a free night to make up for the broken air conditioning.

   Higher exports made up for weak demand at home.

   Similarcompensate, offset

   Note

   The for is essential, and what follows it names the loss or fault: a failed midterm, the end of Soviet subsidies. A favorite pattern weighs a weakness against a strength, with in marking each side: what I lack in patience, I make up for in drive.

5. 5
   apply cosmeticsphrasal verbreflexivetransitive or intransitive

   To apply cosmetics to a face or facial feature, one's own or someone else's.

   The stylist made up the model's eyes in shades of bronze and gold.

   Most mornings she has ten minutes to shower, dress, and make up.

   Note

   Three shapes are possible: make up your eyes, with the feature as object; make yourself up, reflexively; or simply make up, with no object at all, as in Anthony Burgess's Beds in the East (1959), where she rushes into her bedroom to make up.

6. 6
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To compensate for a deficiency or shortfall, or to supply what is missing.

   The runner made up nearly ten seconds over the final lap.

   Students who miss an exam can make up the credit over the summer.

   Similarrecover, regain, recoup

   Oppositelose

   Note

   Here the shortfall itself is the object, with no for: you make up the time, the lost ground, the missing amount. Distances and times are typical objects, as when BBC Sport's report of Man City 4–3 Wolves (2011) has a player who made up 90 yards to slot in. Add for and the meaning moves to making amends for a loss.

7. 7
   noun · make-upuncountable

   Alternative spelling of makeup.

   The chemical make-up of the soil determines which crops will grow there.

   Stage make-up has to be heavier than everyday cosmetics to read under bright lights.

   Note

   The hyphenated noun carries the same meanings as makeup, from cosmetics to what something is composed of: in Trains Illustrated (1961), a train's make-up includes Continental ferry wagons from Harwich. In these uses it usually takes no plural.

8. 8
   preparephrasal verbtransitive

   To prepare or assemble something, such as a dish, a medicine, or a garment, into its finished form.

   The pharmacist will make up the prescription while you wait.

   The club had matching jackets made up for the whole team.

   Similarprepare, fill, assemble

   Note

   Paired with have, it means someone else does the assembling: in Wayne Jancik's The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders (1990), a group even had letter sweaters made up with huge S's on them. Done by yourself, it suits quick kitchen work, as in making up a batch of stew before the long cooking starts.

9. 9
   draw up (list)phrasal verbtransitive

   To compile or draw up a list, document, or similar record.

   Before each shift the manager makes up a roster of who works where.

   Volunteers make up a list of donors every spring for the annual report.

   Similarcompile, prepare, draft

10. 10
    phrasal verbreflexivetransitive or intransitive

    To prepare a performer for a theatrical performance using costume, cosmetics, and the like.

    The crew made up the lead actor to look twenty years older for the final act.

    An hour before curtain, the chorus members make up in a shared dressing room.

11. 11
    after a fightadjective · make-upcolloquial

    Connected with a reconciliation after a quarrel or fight.

    The make-up call after their fight lasted two hours and ended in laughter.

    They had a make-up drink at the bar where the quarrel had started.

    Note

    It stands before a noun and names what follows a quarrel: a make-up call, a make-up dinner and, bluntly, make-up sex. It belongs to the verb for settling a fight, not to the cosmetics, even though it is spelled like the noun for them.

12. 12
    win favorphrasal verbintransitive

    To court someone's favor or affection with friendly or romantic advances.

    The young clerk made up to the owner's daughter all summer without result.

    Politicians make up to voters before an election and forget them afterward.

    Similarcourt, woo, flatter

    Note

    The preposition carries the meaning: you make up to a person, and that to separates courting favor from settling a quarrel, which takes with. F. Scott Fitzgerald puts it in the progressive in Tender Is the Night (1934): she thought he was making up to her.

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