make up

1 to be all the substance of the book is made up of 20 chapters Synonyms compose, comprise, form, constituteRelated Words embody, epitomize, incarnate, incorporate, integrate, materialize, personify, substantiate; complement, complete, supplement; fill (out), flesh (out)

2 to create or think of by clever use of the imagination she keeps making up excuses as to why she hasn't yet finished the project Synonyms concoct, construct, contrive, cook (up), devise, drum up, excogitate, fabricate, invent, manufacture, think (up), trump up, vamp (up)Related Words coin, design, hatch, produce; daydream, dream, fantasize; conceive, envisage, envision, imagine, picture, vision, visualize; ad-lib, extemporize, improviseNear Antonyms clone, copy, copycat, duplicate, imitate, mimic, reduplicate, replicate, reproduce

3 to form by putting together parts or materials we'll have to make up the bookcase, which came in a box marked “some assembly required” Synonyms assemble, confect, construct, erect, fabricate, make, build, piece, put up, raise, rear, set upRelated Words carpenter, fashion, forge, frame, hammer, handcraft, manufacture, mold, produce, shape; prefabricate; begin, coin, create, generate, inaugurate, initiate, innovate, invent, originate; constitute, establish, father, found, institute, organize; conceive, concoct, contrive, cook (up), design, devise, imagine, think (up); reassemble, rebuild, reconstruct, redevelop, reedify [British], retrofit; jerry-build, rig (up), throw up; combine, uniteNear Antonyms demolish, destroy, devastate, flatten, level, pull down, pulverize, raze, ruin, ruinate, shatter, smash, wreck; blow up, explode; detach, disengage; disconnect, disjoin, disunite, divide, separateAntonyms demount, disassemble, dismantle, dismember, knock down, strike, take down, tear down