Meaning of make shift | Babel Free

Definitions

To contrive; to invent a way of surmounting a difficulty.

dated, transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“Nerissa: How like⟳ you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew? Portia: Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast. And the worst fall⟳ that ever fell, I hope⟳ I shall make⟳ shift to go without him.”

“Ecod, I thank⟳ your worship⟳, I'll make⟳ a shift to stay⟳ my stomach with a slice of cold beef in the pantry.”

“The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly. They make⟳ shift to live⟳ merely by conformity, practically as their fathers did, and are in no sense⟳ the progenitors of a noble race⟳ of men.”

“We could find⟳ no matches, and so we tried to make⟳ shift with the pistols.”

“I was unable to handle⟳ a brig (which the Hispaniola should have⟳ been), but I thought I could make⟳ shift to sail⟳ her as a schooner without public shame.”

“The military historian must often make⟳ shift to write⟳ of battles with slender data, but he can pad out his deficiencies by learned parallels.”

CEFR level