From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmake ends meetmake ends meetSURVIVEto have only just enough money to buy the things you need When Mike lost his job, we could barely make ends meet. → end
Examples from the Corpus
make ends meet• They had no machinery for making ends meet.• She is unemployed and depends upon benefits to make ends meet.• With the car repairs, I just don't see how we're going to make ends meet this month.• As a small company of 15 boys we find it hard to make ends meet.• Old people on pensions are finding it hard to make ends meet.• The most deprived sections of the population are finding it hard to make ends meet.• Though near the top of her earning potential, she said she is forced to work extra jobs to make ends meet.• My mother had to work 12 hours a day in a factory just to make ends meet.• What she saw around her in the neighborhood where we both grew up was divorce and the struggle to make ends meet.• Non-college women with children struggling to make ends meet have a different agenda from that of single college-educated women with hot careers.• To make ends meet, she works for a travel company and makes dumplings for a cafeteria. 