MAKE OUT

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does make out mean? 

• MAKE OUT (verb)
  The verb MAKE OUT has 10 senses:

1. detect with the senses

2. make out and issue

3. comprehend

4. proceed or get along

5. succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available

6. have sexual intercourse with

7. kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion

8. write all the required information onto a form

9. imply or suggest

10. try to establish

  Familiarity information: MAKE OUT used as a verb is familiar.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAKE OUT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Detect with the senses

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart

Context example:

I can't make out the faces in this photograph

"Make out" entails doing...:

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

resolve (make clearly visible)

discriminate (distinguish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make out and issue

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

cut; issue; make out; write out

Context example:

Please make the check out to me

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

write (communicate or express by writing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

check (write out a check on a bank account)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

The banks make out the check

Sense 3

Meaning:

Comprehend

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

I cannot make out what this politician is saying

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

understand (know and comprehend the nature or meaning of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Proceed or get along

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

come; do; fare; get along; make out

Context example:

He's come a long way

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

go; proceed (follow a certain course)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s Adjective/Noun
Somebody ----s Adjective

Sense 5

Meaning:

Succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

contend; cope; deal; get by; grapple; make do; make out; manage

Context example:

They made do on half a loaf of bread every day

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

extemporize; improvise (manage in a makeshift way; do with whatever is at hand)

fend (try to manage without help)

cut; hack (be able to manage or manage successfully)

rub along; scrape along; scrape by; scratch along; squeak by; squeeze by (manage one's existence barely)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 6

Meaning:

Have sexual intercourse with

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

bang; be intimate; bed; bonk; do it; eff; fuck; get it on; get laid; have a go at it; have intercourse; have it away; have it off; have sex; hump; jazz; know; lie with; love; make love; make out; roll in the hay; screw; sleep together; sleep with

Context example:

Were you ever intimate with this man?

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

copulate; couple; mate; pair (engage in sexual intercourse)

Verb group:

make out; neck (kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

have; take (have sex with; archaic use)

fornicate (have sex without being married)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 7

Meaning:

Kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

make out; neck

Context example:

The couple were necking in the back seat of the car

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

pet (stroke or caress gently)

Verb group:

bang; be intimate; bed; bonk; do it; eff; fuck; get it on; get laid; have a go at it; have intercourse; have it away; have it off; have sex; hump; jazz; know; lie with; love; make love; make out; roll in the hay; screw; sleep together; sleep with (have sexual intercourse with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "make out"):

smooch; spoon (snuggle and lie in a position where one person faces the back of the others)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 8

Meaning:

Write all the required information onto a form

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

complete; fill in; fill out; make out

Context example:

make out a form

"Make out" entails doing...:

get down; put down; set down; write down (put down in writing; of texts, musical compositions, etc.)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 9

Meaning:

Imply or suggest

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

Your remarks make me out to be stupid

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

intimate; suggest (imply as a possibility)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 10

Meaning:

Try to establish

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

She made out that she know nothing about the crime

Hypernyms (to "make out" is one way to...):

claim (assert or affirm strongly; state to be true or existing)

Sentence frame:

It ----s that CLAUSE

 Context examples 

It was extremely difficult, I heard, to make out what he owed, or what he had paid, or of what he died possessed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At the bottom he saw a gold ring lying; and as he could not make out how it had got there, he ordered the cook to be sent for.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The faint sound of Thornton’s voice came to them, and though they could not make out the words of it, they knew that he was in his extremity.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He is now reading his wife's typescript of my diary. I wonder what they make out of it. Here it is....

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As far as I can make out, the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the meantime, we could never make out where he got the drink.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Peering through the steam, he could make out but little of their personal appearance.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The boat was near enough for us to make out that it was larger than any sealing boat and built on different lines.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I was puzzling to make out the subject of a picture on the wall, when the door opened, and an individual carrying a light entered; another followed close behind.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had left the instrument on the dancing being over, and he had sat down to try to make out an air which he wished to give the Miss Musgroves an idea of.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)