make ends meet
to have enough money to survive
TRANSLATION
make ends meet = über die Runden kommen, mit seinen Einkünfte auskommen --- GOOGLE INDEX make ends meet: approximately 1,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Lady Madonna,
Children at your feet,
Wondering how you manage to MAKE ENDS MEET
- Lady Madonna, The Beatles
---
After the economy slipped into recession in 2008, millions of Americans received unemployment benefits to MAKE ENDS MEET - including almost 3,000 millionaires.
(American Thinker)
Children at your feet,
Wondering how you manage to MAKE ENDS MEET
- Lady Madonna, The Beatles
---
After the economy slipped into recession in 2008, millions of Americans received unemployment benefits to MAKE ENDS MEET - including almost 3,000 millionaires.
(American Thinker)
Did you
know?
make ends meet
idiom
- to have just enough money to pay for the things that you need
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
The origin of the expression "make ends meet" has never been established. Etymologists have suggested several theories, some of which are related to the field of bookkeeping. For instance, the total at the bottom - or end - of the income column should be equal to or greater than the total at the bottom of the expenditure column. Thus if the "ends" of the two columns meet (are equal), one is making just enough money to pay for the expenditures and no more.
Another suggestion is that it comes from tailoring/dressmaking and refers to having just enough material to wrap around the body, so that the two ends of the material meet.
An amusing suggestion is the sausage theory. During the 1930s U.S. depression, people who made their own sausage sometimes filled the casings with more filler and less meat to save money. This supposedly resulted in the clever wordplay phrase “we can't make both ends MEAT.”
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SYNONYMS
just getting by, barely surviving, keep within one's own means, muddle through, keep one's head above water, make do
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"If salaries are cut, many people will have trouble making ends meet."
idiom
- to have just enough money to pay for the things that you need
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
The origin of the expression "make ends meet" has never been established. Etymologists have suggested several theories, some of which are related to the field of bookkeeping. For instance, the total at the bottom - or end - of the income column should be equal to or greater than the total at the bottom of the expenditure column. Thus if the "ends" of the two columns meet (are equal), one is making just enough money to pay for the expenditures and no more.
Another suggestion is that it comes from tailoring/dressmaking and refers to having just enough material to wrap around the body, so that the two ends of the material meet.
An amusing suggestion is the sausage theory. During the 1930s U.S. depression, people who made their own sausage sometimes filled the casings with more filler and less meat to save money. This supposedly resulted in the clever wordplay phrase “we can't make both ends MEAT.”
---
SYNONYMS
just getting by, barely surviving, keep within one's own means, muddle through, keep one's head above water, make do
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"If salaries are cut, many people will have trouble making ends meet."
