to make like a baby
- idiom
- Informal
:
hacer como un bebé
- It's getting late; let's make like a baby and head out of here.
Examples
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As soon as the movie ended, the crowd started to make like a baby and head for the exits.
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Why don't we make like a baby and head out?
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After the meeting dragged on, he decided to make like a baby and leave early.
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It's time to make like a baby and leave!
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After the meeting dragged on, he decided to make like a baby and leave early.
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It's getting late; let's make like a baby and head out of here.
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As soon as the movie ended, the crowd started to make like a baby and head for the exits.
Synonyms
78
2.0
Leave a place suddenly, often to avoid someone or something
12
7.7
Leave a place quickly, often in a rude way
2
2.5
Leave a place quickly because you are in a hurry
1
9.9
To leave a place quickly because you do not want to be there
1
7.9
To leave a place quickly, often without saying goodbye
To leave a place quickly, often as a joke
To leave a place suddenly, usually to go somewhere else
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
Literally, 'make like a baby' would be interpreted as 'act like a baby' from 'make' + 'like' + 'baby', so a learner knowing the words would expect imitation or childish behaviour. The attested meaning 'to leave or depart quickly' is a playful, culture-specific use (often relying on jokey patterns like 'make like a tree and leave') that cannot be predicted from the constituents, so a B1 learner would not reliably infer it.
Etymology
Make like a baby is a playful phrase that may come from the image of a baby suddenly crawling away, because 'to make like' someone means to act like them. Imagine a baby starting to crawl off quickly; to make like a baby is to copy that quick exit. That's why it is used to mean 'leave quickly'.