A strange use of "make"

I don't use this word this way, but I'm sure that it means "realized the truth". She knew that he was a sleazebag. Exposure would surely have something to with it as well. It seems that a lot of meaning goes into those four letter!

I ckecked the American Heritage and found these definitions and examples, which apply here [meanings # 18a, b, and c, by the way]:

to draw a conclusion as to the significance or nature of > He didn't know what to make of the decision.

to calculate as being; estimat > I make the height 20 feet

to consider as being > it wasn't the problem

Hi, Philip !

Thanks for going to such trouble, I appreciate that !

In fact, the dictionary I used fell short of the mark and did not produce the results the American Heritage did.

Bottom line: I'd do a little bit better to steer clear of that pure form than to use it

This is a term one might hear in a crime or spy show. If someone who is operating in disguise has been recognized or identified, he has been "made." It's not used that way very often in ordinary conversation.

khoffThis is a term one might hear in a crime or spy show.

And from the oft-quoted Clint Eastwood :

Make my day!

But that's a completely different use of "make." I'm thinking of a very specific use, in which "make" means "to penetrate the disguise of, to recognize the true identity of." I'm thinking of movie dialogue like "He's been made -- we'll have to change the whole plan and come up with a different disguise."

says "Make" is British police slang for "identify."

I don't watch or read many spy thrillers, but I have to say I've never heard "made" used this way. I would have thought the sentence meant that her mom was the cause of the boyfriend being a sleazebag. (As in the old joke, "My mother made me a homosexual." "If I buy the yarn, will she make me one too?")

"Make to be," I've heard, usually with the addition of "out." ("With utilities added

Hi,

I agree completely with Khoff. I've often heard this usage in police dramas.

Best wishes, Clive

A related usage of "make", and one I hear more often, is to "make somebody out to be". This is also the interpretation of someone's character.

Here are some quotes from COCA:

Hyde was not the beast they made him out to be
They basically made her out to be the next American gangster
Others, obviously, made him out to be an incorruptible seeker of justice.
Alexander wa

Thank you, Clive! I thought it was pretty obvious, but no one else seemed to have ever heard this usage!