English

Verb

make for

1. (idiomatic) To set out to go (somewhere); to move towards.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 4, scene 4:

     He makes for England, there to claim the crown.

   • 1888, James M. Barrie, Auld Licht Idyls, ch. 6:

     [H]e disappeared into his house much as a startled weasel makes for its hole.

2. (idiomatic) To tend to produce or result in.
   • 1914, William MacLeod Raine, The Pirate of Panama, ch. 11:

     It was such a day as one dreams about, with that pleasant warmth in the air that makes for indolent content.

3. (idiomatic, rare) To confirm, favour, strengthen (an opinion, theory, etc.).
   • 1830, E.S. Carlos (translator), Galileo Galilei (author), “The Siderial^[sic] Messenger”, reprinted in Louise Fargo Brown and George Barr Carson, Men and Centuries of European Civilization, Ayer Publishing (1971), ISBN 978-0-8369-2100-7, page 427:

     Secondly, we will examine the Cœlestiall Phœnomena that make for the Copernican Hypothesis, as if it were to prove absolutely victorious; […]

   • 1868, T.W. Wonfor, “Rare Visitors at Brighton”, in M.C. Cooke (editor), Hardwicke's Science-Gossip, 1 December 1868, Robert Hardwicke (1869), page 278:

     Several very curious varieties of Blues have been taken, which appear to make for Darwin’s theory.

   • 1912, Simon FitzSimons, “Criticisms in Kant”, in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Volume 37, page 148:

     That they are “conditions of thought” does not make for Kant’s theory of the categories one iota more than it makes for the theory of Aristotle or for the theory of Locke.

4. Used other than as an idiom: see make,‎ for.

   I made this picture for my Dad.