"on the make" meaning in English

See on the make in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-on the make.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: From make (“companion, spouse, mate”), related to match (“counterpart, partner”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|make|t=companion, spouse, mate}} make (“companion, spouse, mate”), {{m|en|match|t=counterpart, partner}} match (“counterpart, partner”) Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} on the make, {{en-PP}} on the make
  1. (informal) Actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-on_the_make-en-prep_phrase-VinLws6c
  2. (informal, by extension) Actively seeking an opportunity for self-advancement; eager to ingratiate oneself to others in order to secure some advantage. Tags: broadly, informal Related terms: put the make on
    Sense id: en-on_the_make-en-prep_phrase-q~tTJqpu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 11 89

Download JSON data for on the make meaning in English (2.6kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "make",
        "t": "companion, spouse, mate"
      },
      "expansion": "make (“companion, spouse, mate”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "match",
        "t": "counterpart, partner"
      },
      "expansion": "match (“counterpart, partner”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From make (“companion, spouse, mate”), related to match (“counterpart, partner”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "on the make",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on the make",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1973 November 26, T. E. Kalem, “The Theatre: Savage Mating Dance”, in Time",
          "text": "Harry (Matthew Cowles) and Tim (Timothy Meyers) are an inseparable pair of macho punks always on the make for an easy sexual score.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_make-en-prep_phrase-VinLws6c",
      "links": [
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "encounter",
          "encounter"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "11 89",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1920, Upton Sinclair, chapter 1, in 100%: The Story of a Patriot",
          "text": "In a city where everybody was \"hustling,\" everybody, as they phrased it, \"on the make,\" why should anyone take a second glance at Peter Gudge?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Actively seeking an opportunity for self-advancement; eager to ingratiate oneself to others in order to secure some advantage."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_make-en-prep_phrase-q~tTJqpu",
      "links": [
        [
          "opportunity",
          "opportunity"
        ],
        [
          "self-advancement",
          "self-advancement"
        ],
        [
          "eager",
          "eager"
        ],
        [
          "ingratiate",
          "ingratiate"
        ],
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, by extension) Actively seeking an opportunity for self-advancement; eager to ingratiate oneself to others in order to secure some advantage."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "37 63",
          "word": "put the make on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-on the make.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ad/En-au-on_the_make.ogg/En-au-on_the_make.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/En-au-on_the_make.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the make"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "make",
        "t": "companion, spouse, mate"
      },
      "expansion": "make (“companion, spouse, mate”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "match",
        "t": "counterpart, partner"
      },
      "expansion": "match (“counterpart, partner”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From make (“companion, spouse, mate”), related to match (“counterpart, partner”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "on the make",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on the make",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "put the make on"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1973 November 26, T. E. Kalem, “The Theatre: Savage Mating Dance”, in Time",
          "text": "Harry (Matthew Cowles) and Tim (Timothy Meyers) are an inseparable pair of macho punks always on the make for an easy sexual score.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "encounter",
          "encounter"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Actively seeking a romantic encounter or relationship."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1920, Upton Sinclair, chapter 1, in 100%: The Story of a Patriot",
          "text": "In a city where everybody was \"hustling,\" everybody, as they phrased it, \"on the make,\" why should anyone take a second glance at Peter Gudge?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Actively seeking an opportunity for self-advancement; eager to ingratiate oneself to others in order to secure some advantage."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "opportunity",
          "opportunity"
        ],
        [
          "self-advancement",
          "self-advancement"
        ],
        [
          "eager",
          "eager"
        ],
        [
          "ingratiate",
          "ingratiate"
        ],
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, by extension) Actively seeking an opportunity for self-advancement; eager to ingratiate oneself to others in order to secure some advantage."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-on the make.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ad/En-au-on_the_make.ogg/En-au-on_the_make.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/En-au-on_the_make.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the make"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.