make both ends meet

English

Verb

make both ends meet (third-person singular simple present makes both ends meet, present participle making both ends meet, simple past and past participle made both ends meet)

1. (now uncommon) Synonym of make ends meet
   • 1661, Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England:

     (entry on Archbishop Edmund Grindall) Worldly wealth he cared not for, desiring only to make both ends meet; and as for that little that lapped over he gave it to pious uses.

   • 1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 5:

     Do you know what it is to be poor? Not poor with the arrogant poverty complained of by certain people who have five or six thousand a year to live upon, and who yet swear they can hardly manage to make both ends meet, but really poor, […]

Further reading

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