Skip to main content
to meet one's maker

to meet one's maker

3 9.0
To die, often with the idea of facing God
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : encontrarse con el creador
  • As he faced his illness, he often thought about what it would be like to meet his maker.
  • going to meet one's maker

Examples

Synonyms

to pass away
vsto meet one's maker
8 3.8

To die peacefully in a gentle, respectful way

is informal and suggests facing judgment after death
to lose one's life
vsto meet one's maker
4.2

Die because of an accident, violence, or disaster

is about general death and implies facing judgment afterward

Antonyms

1.0

To start life as a baby when you come into the world

Surface Forms

meet one's maker infinitive
meeting one's maker present participle
meets one's maker third person singular
met one's maker past participle

Morphology

meet + one + Maker

The phrase literally combines 'meet' with 'one's maker' (maker = creator/God), so a learner could infer 'meeting one's creator' which conventionally implies death; however this inference depends on cultural/religious background and euphemistic usage rather than straightforward compositional semantics. Because understanding the idiomatic sense requires that extra cultural assumption, an average B1 learner who only knows the constituent words may not reliably derive 'to die' without prior exposure.

Etymology

Meet one's maker comes from the image of literally meeting your maker (the person who made you, usually God) after life ends. So it means 'to die', often with the idea that you will be judged for your actions.