to make out
27
6.0
- phrasal verb
- /meɪk aʊt/
- Informal
:
hacer pasar por
- My point is that standards and assessments are not the simple solutions they are made out to be.
So some, a lot's been made out of making goals public.
- So some, a lot's been made out of making goals public.
- But about two days later, I sent a message back making out I'm Christopher.
- Made to fear a group of people who are not as dangerous as they're made out to be on social media.
- We're not actually doing as bad as people like to make out.
- And the mob came for him and tried to make out that Pete was anti-Semitic.
Examples
-
Secretly, she wasn't as opposed to this mission of her mother's as she made out.
Fiction book (1995) -
The prosecution made out she was telling one lie after another... ...and the jury believed him.
-
So some, a lot's been made out of making goals public.
-
look, I, I think, I think, you know, these things get get made out to be
-
Both were made out to be heroes, after a fashion.
Fiction book (1998) -
And I promise, Philly people aren't as mean as we're made out to be in sports news.
Blog text (19) -
The endeavor to make out that the Emperor had been kidnapped by the Japanese is wholly untrue.
-
At some point they're going to experience a dark night of the soul where they must surrender the meaning they made out of this primal desire.
-
Many politicians are made out to be corrupt when they are actually trying to help.
-
The movie makes out the hero to be much braver than he really is.
Synonyms
∞
1.3
To say something that is not true to trick someone
∞
1.0
Behave in a certain way, often to pretend or hide feelings
∞
2.5
Behave in a way to trick or amuse someone
∞
2.3
To act as if something is true when it is not
972
3.2
Invent a story or excuse that is not true
270
3.9
To make someone believe something that is not true to get an advantage
172
6.1
To pretend to be someone you are not to trick people
70
7.2
Pretend to be another person by copying their looks, voice or actions
69
8.0
To claim to be or do something, often without proof
40
7.2
Pretend to feel something, like surprise or interest, to trick other people
26
6.9
To pretend to be someone else to hide the truth
25
3.4
Pretend to have qualities or feelings you do not have
20
6.7
Pretend to have a feeling to trick people
18
6.9
To make something or someone look real when they are not
How Credible
818
3.3
182
3.9
- Informal
27
6.0
∞
2.3
71
6.9
50
7.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to kiss or have sexual activity' is an informal idiomatic reading of the phrasal verb that cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'make' (to do or produce/succeed) and 'out' (away/outside). Because the expression is slangy, polysemous, and culture-specific rather than compositionally built from its parts, a B1 learner who only knows the constituents but has not seen the idiom would not reliably infer this meaning.
Etymology
Make out may come from the image of someone 'making' a story out of a person, shaping how they look to others. That picture explains why it can mean 'to claim' or 'pretend' someone or something is a certain way.