to make do and mend

7.6

Use what you have and fix things instead of buying new ones

idiom

Archaic

: arreglárselas

She always makes do and mends her clothes instead of buying new ones.

Examples

My grandmother taught me to make do and mend rather than throwing things away.
Many people now try to make do and mend as a way to live sustainably.
During tough economic times, families had to make do and mend to get by.
During tough times, we must make do and mend.
During tough economic times, families had to make do and mend to get by.
Many people now try to make do and mend as a way to live sustainably.
My grandmother taught me to make do and mend rather than throwing things away.

Synonyms

to make do

vsto make do and mend

49 3.7

Use what you have even if it is not enough

focuses on repairing items instead of buying new replacements

to mend

vsto make do and mend

41 1.2

Fix something that is broken or torn

also includes managing scarce resources, not only the act of repair

to stretch one's budget

vsto make do and mend

1 3.7

Make your money last longer by spending carefully

focuses on repairing items rather than only spending less

Antonyms

waste

469 1.2

Careless use of money, time, or other resources

How Resourceful

to make do and mend

Archaic

7.6

to make do

49 3.7

purchase

208 1.4

to throw away

477 1.8

Surface Forms

make do and mend infinitive

made do and mend past

made do and mend past participle

making do and mend present participle

makes do and mend third person singular

Morphology

make + do + and + mend

The element 'mend' (to repair) and the coordinating 'and' are transparent, and a learner who knows 'do' can map it to 'manage'. However, the core collocation 'make do' functions idiomatically (meaning 'manage with what you have') and is not fully predictable from 'make' + 'do' alone, so understanding the full idiomatic instruction requires some exposure. Because parts are compositional but the key verb phrase is a fixed idiom, the expression is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Make do and mend comes from life during war, when shops had little to sell and people had to repair clothes and things. People learned to make do with what they had and to mend torn items, so the phrase now means 'to manage with little money by repairing and reusing things'.