'To make both ends meet' definitions:

Definition of 'To make both ends meet'

From: GCIDE
  • End \End\ ([e^]nd), n. [OE. & AS. ende; akin to OS. endi, D. einde, eind, OHG. enti, G. ende, Icel. endir, endi, Sw. [aum]nde, Dan. ende, Goth. andeis, Skr. anta. [root]208. Cf. Ante-, Anti-, Answer.]
  • 1. The extreme or last point or part of any material thing considered lengthwise (the extremity of breadth being side); hence, extremity, in general; the concluding part; termination; close; limit; as, the end of a field, line, pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end to pain; -- opposed to beginning, when used of anything having a first part. [1913 Webster]
  • Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. --Eccl. vii. 8. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion; issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive event; consequence. [1913 Webster]
  • My guilt be on my head, and there an end. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • O that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination; also, cause of death or destruction. [1913 Webster]
  • Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
  • Confound your hidden falsehood, and award Either of you to be the other's end. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • I shall see an end of him. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. The object aimed at in any effort considered as the close and effect of exertion; ppurpose; intention; aim; as, to labor for private or public ends. [1913 Webster]
  • Losing her, the end of living lose. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as, odds and ends. [1913 Webster]
  • I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. (Carpet Manuf.) One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet. [1913 Webster]
  • An end. (a) On end; upright; erect; endways. --Spenser (b) To the end; continuously. [Obs.] --Richardson.
  • End bulb (Anat.), one of the bulblike bodies in which some sensory nerve fibers end in certain parts of the skin and mucous membranes; -- also called end corpuscles.
  • End fly, a bobfly.
  • End for end, one end for the other; in reversed order.
  • End man, the last man in a row; one of the two men at the extremities of a line of minstrels.
  • End on (Naut.), bow foremost.
  • End organ (Anat.), the structure in which a nerve fiber ends, either peripherally or centrally.
  • End plate (Anat.), one of the flat expansions in which motor nerve fibers terminate on muscular fibers.
  • End play (Mach.), movement endwise, or room for such movement.
  • End stone (Horol.), one of the two plates of a jewel in a timepiece; the part that limits the pivot's end play.
  • Ends of the earth, the remotest regions of the earth.
  • In the end, finally. --Shak.
  • On end, upright; erect.
  • To the end, in order. --Bacon.
  • To make both ends meet, to live within one's income. --Fuller.
  • To put an end to, to destroy. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'To make both ends meet'