make ends meet

phrase

: to make one's means adequate to one's needs

did all they could do to make ends meet

Examples of make ends meet in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The film includes flashbacks to his time in the war and features a parallel story about his young carer struggling to make ends meet. — Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 16 Oct. 2026

Meanwhile, 8 in 10 Gen Z and millennial workers report holding two jobs to make ends meet. — Heather Occhino, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026

Rising financial strains on American workers are forcing them to make painful trade-offs, such as skipping medical care, to make ends meet, new research shows. — Megan Cerullo, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026

Set to a downtempo bachata, the track features Lorén’s penetrating vocals filled with anguish at the impossible cycle of working endlessly to make ends meet. — Vanessa Diaz, Rolling Stone, 15 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1815, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for make ends meet

• amit
• athlete
• backseat
• blackfeet
• broadsheet
• browbeat
• buckwheat
• compete
• compleat
• complete
• conceit
• concrete