make good

phrase

1

or make good on : to make valid or complete: such as

a

: to carry out successfully

made good their escape

made good on his promise

b

: indemnify

make good the loss

c

: to make up for (a deficiency)

made good previous neglect of his child

d

: prove

made good a charge

2

: to prove to be capable

also : succeed

The play made good at the box office.

Examples of make good in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So when a story to discuss it all was pitched to him in January, hoping to discuss the year that was, Campbell agreed and made good on his word. — Colton Pouncy, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026

Deborah Haynes covers serious stuff, like foreign affairs, national security and defense — the sorts of topics that might not make good fodder for a snarky newsletter or a hot-talk podcast. — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 10 Sep. 2026

So when the 21-year-old finally made good on her promise to give Baylee an adventure of her own, the younger sister was ready with a dummy tucked into bed and a getaway outfit consisting of pajamas. — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 9 Sep. 2026

Nvidia's chips made GPT-6 Astra possible, while the model's success instills confidence in OpenAI's ability to make good on its custom silicon partnership with Broadcom. — Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 8 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for make good

• adulthood
• babyhood
• brotherhood
• cottonwood
• fatherhood
• firewood
• fuelwood
• hardihood
• ironwood
• leatherwood
• likelihood
• livelihood