MAKE UP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does make up mean? 

• MAKE UP (verb)
  The verb MAKE UP has 9 senses:

1. form or compose

2. devise or compose

3. do or give something to somebody in return

4. make up work that was missed due to absence at a later point

5. concoct something artificial or untrue

6. put in order or neaten

7. adjust for

8. come to terms

9. apply make-up or cosmetics to one's face to appear prettier

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAKE UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form or compose

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

be; comprise; constitute; make up; represent

Context example:

These few men comprise his entire army

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

make (constitute the essence of)

compose (form the substance of)

constitute; form; make (to compose or represent)

range; straddle (range or extend over; occupy a certain area)

fall into; fall under (be included in or classified as)

pose; present (introduce)

supplement (serve as a supplement to)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

make-up; makeup (the way in which someone or something is composed)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Devise or compose

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Context example:

This designer makes up our Spring collections

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

design (create the design for; create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Do or give something to somebody in return

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

compensate; make up; pay; pay off

Context example:

Does she pay you for the work you are doing?

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

settle (dispose of; make a financial settlement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make up work that was missed due to absence at a later point

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

catch up with; make up

Context example:

Can I catch up with the material or is it too late?

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

recoup; recover; recuperate (regain or make up for)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

make-up; makeup (an event that is substituted for a previously cancelled event)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Concoct something artificial or untrue

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

cook up; fabricate; invent; make up; manufacture

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

concoct; dream up; hatch; think of; think up (devise or invent)

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

vamp; vamp up (make up)

spin (make up a story)

concoct; trump up (invent)

confabulate (unconsciously replace fact with fantasy in one's memory)

mythologise; mythologize (construct a myth)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Put in order or neaten

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

make; make up

Context example:

make up a room

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

clean up; neaten; square away; straighten; straighten out; tidy; tidy up (put (things or places) in order)

Verb group:

make (gather and light the materials for)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 7

Meaning:

Adjust for

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

compensate; correct; counterbalance; even off; even out; even up; make up

Context example:

engineers will work to correct the effects or air resistance

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

balance; equilibrate; equilibrise; equilibrize (bring into balance or equilibrium)

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

carry (compensate for a weaker partner or member by one's own performance)

compensate; cover; overcompensate (make up for shortcomings or a feeling of inferiority by exaggerating good qualities)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 8

Meaning:

Come to terms

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

conciliate; make up; patch up; reconcile; settle

Context example:

After some discussion we finally made up

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

agree; concord; concur; hold (be in accord; be in agreement)

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

appease; propitiate (make peace with)

make peace (end hostilities)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 9

Meaning:

Apply make-up or cosmetics to one's face to appear prettier

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

She makes herself up every morning

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

groom; neaten (care for one's external appearance)

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

lipstick (apply lipstick to)

rouge (redden by applying rouge to)

powder (apply powder to)

highlight (apply a highlighter to one's cheeks or eyebrows in order to make them more prominent)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

make-up; makeup (cosmetics applied to the face to improve or change your appearance)

 Context examples 

Perhaps we may, said the wife; but let us sleep upon it, before we make up our minds to that.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

She had also asked him twice to dine at Rosings, and had sent for him only the Saturday before, to make up her pool of quadrille in the evening.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

"Don't read it now," Martin pleaded. "I want to talk with you. I'll make up a bundle and you can take it home."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Scientists have created a new map of the world's seafloor, offering a more vivid picture of the structures that make up the deepest, least-explored parts of the ocean.

(New map uncovers thousands of unseen seamounts on ocean floor, NSF)

There are nine proteins that make up the TTLL family, but TTLL7 is the most abundant in the brain and one of the main tubulin code writers.

(Scientists unravel the mystery of the tubulin code, NIH)

PAHs make up about 10 percent of the carbon in the universe, and are found on the Earth where they are released upon the burning of organic material such as meat, sugarcane, wood.

(“Kitchen Smoke” Molecules in Nebula Offer Clues to the Building Blocks of Life, NASA)

It doesn't support the variety of reef organisms that make up a healthy system.

(Too much algae and too many microbes threaten coral reefs, NSF)

In a word, I turned over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past.

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

A house cannot be made habitable in a day; and, after all, how few days go to make up a century.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The rest of the dogs were in like condition; but Perrault, to make up lost time, pushed them late and early.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)