make, verb transitive

Origin:
Calqued on Afrikaans maak ’n plan.
In the phrase to make a plan.
To devise a way of doing something, especially of overcoming some difficulty; maak ’n plan, see maak sense 2.
1905 P. Gibbon Vrouw Grobelaar 115Instead of going out to be shot like a fool, he made a plan.
1937 C.R. Prance Tante Rebella’s Saga 34His wagon was unfortunately away, but if the Commandant would drink coffee and rest awhile, he would try to make a plan.
1946 S. Cloete Afr. Portraits 71A Boer when in difficulties always makes a plan — plan maak — and he allowed his enemies to think that he was so enchanted with their country that he intended to settle in it.
1957 D. Jacobson Price of Diamonds 113What have I ever had in my life except what I grabbed and held on to with both hands and made a plan for, at once?
c1967 J. Hobbs in New S. Afr. Writing 74We will make a plan to show that Uitlander a thing or two, nè?
1976 A.P. Brink Instant in Wind 220‘It’s all right.’ he said. ‘You can stay here until we make a plan.’
1979 Star 17 Jan.It’s not that the farmers aren’t making a plan either. At is already in the export business — exporting bricks to that place the Government likes to call Bophuthatswana.
1990 Frontline Mar.Apr. 21‘Leave it to me,’ he says. ‘I’ll make a plan.’
1991 Sunday Times 7 Apr. 26Sadly, these days the skeis are not made from wood. When the bottom dropped out of the ox-wagon market, the boere were forced to make another plan. Now the skeis are composed of some kind of rubber compound.
To devise a way of doing something, especially of overcoming some difficulty; maak ’n plan, see maak sense 2.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19051991