make ends meet | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)To haveenoughmoneyto coverexpenses; toget byfinancially; toget throughthepayperiod(sufficienttomeetthe nextpayday).1748, Tobias Smollett, “The Adventures of Roderick Random”, inThe Miscellaneous works of Tobias Smollett, page18:... a schoolmaster, whose income being small, he was fain to keep a glass of good liquor for the entertainment of passengers, by which he made shift tomakethe twoendsof the yearmeet.1996, Chris Peters,Sudan: A Nation in the Balance, page42:Although most of the poor and displaced in Khartoum struggle tomake ends meet, a very small number not only find work, but form small co-operatives.1997,Richard Ashcroft, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, performed by The Verve:'Cause it's a bitter sweet symphony that's life / Trying tomake ends meet, you're a slave to money then you die2007, Peter Geoffrey Hall,London Voices, London Lives, page269:Very many Londoners reported to us that they were struggling tomake ends meet; that it was a constant battle to keep their heads above water, or that they had only just got into the position of being able to breathe freely.2009February 27, “Avarice and Audacity”, inThe Guardian, UK:Barclays, which until now hasmade ends meetwith costly loans from the Middle East rather than take public money, may soon join the queue for the emergency medicine too.2011August 19, Carl Knutson, “The Plane That Flew Too High” (41:00 from the start), inMayday: Air Disaster, season11, episode 2, spoken byJonathan Aris:Investigators discover that Captain Ospina was forced to take a second job, moonlighting in a bar, in order tomake ends meetfor his family.2022April 6, “Network News: Spring Statement: Sunak accused of making rail less competitive”, inRAIL, number954, page 8:TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes was typically forthright in his criticism by claiming that Sunak had "blatantly failed" to cure "a growing tragedy", as "every single day, more and more families can'tmake ends meet".

Examples:

EN: Fumie is dragging her feet, while we struggle to make ends meet.
ES: Fumie va a rastras, mientras nosotros luchamos por llegar a fin de mes.
EN: He had to cut a lot of corners to make ends meet, but Mark finally decided he needed the New York front.
ES: Hubo que reducir gastos para compensar y al final decidió seguir con el despacho en Nueva York.
EN: We have to make ends meet!
ES: - Hay que arreglárselas, ¿no? - Ja...
EN: Hard enough to make ends meet as it is.
ES: Bastante difícil es ya salir adelante.
EN: It's hard enough to make ends meet.
ES: Ya es bastante difícil llegar a fin de mes.
EN: My mother broke her back over the stove and washtubs trying to make ends meet.
ES: Mi madre se deslomó lavando ropa y cocinando para llegar a fin de mes.
EN: My mother is still sick, I got doctor's bills, medicine bills they are rising, I'm wearing the same clothes I just can't make ends meet
ES: Mi madre sigue enferma. Debo las facturas del médico y las medicinas. Y han subido el alquiler.
EN: I always worry about my lack of talent, or... my life with mother, trying to make ends meet.
ES: Siempre me preocupo por mi falta de talento, o de mi vida con mi madre, tratando de llegar a fin de mes.
EN: Why, a person has to be a millionaire to make ends meet.
ES: Una persona tiene que ser millonaria para llegar a fin de mes.
EN: Trying to make ends meet year after year like you been doing.
ES: No quiero encontrarme después de los años como tú.
EN: Living with his poor uncle, Endo started working at a cabaret to make ends meet.
ES: Viviendo con su tío, Endo comenzó trabajando en un cabaret para llegar a fin de mes.
EN: Every time I thought I could make ends meet, some joker came along and moved the ends out.
ES: Cada vez que pensé que lo iba a conseguir, ocurrió algo. Alguien se interpuso y lo estropeó.
EN: Where you work every night to make ends meet?
ES: ¿Donde trabajas todas las noches para llegar a fin de mes?
EN: And even with the insurance money, we'll hardly be able to make ends meet.
ES: Incluso con el dinero del seguro, apenas vamos a tener para comer.
EN: He ought to realise how hard you have to work to make ends meet.
ES: Estoy segura de que si te viera, entendería el esfuerzo que has hecho.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).