English

Verb

make good

1. To achieve substantial success in life, often in business.
   • 1925, Gilbert K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America, page 94:

     America does vaguely feel a man making good as something analogous to a man being good or a man doing good.

   • 2007, ‎Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop:

     The moment DJay becomes a rapper, the moment he becomes an artist, is linked to his own understanding of what hip hop was about when Skinny Black, his idol, a local homeboy who made good as a rapper, was “blowing up."

   • 2012, Robert Wuthnow, Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland, page 200:

     He [Eisenhower] was their own, the boy who made good.

2. (often with "on"): To complete successfully.

   He made good his escape by jumping from a second-story window.

   The check bounced, but he said he will make good on it next month.

3. To remedy or compensate for (a defect or deficiency).

   The company made good the damage by paying my repair costs.

4. To make (a surface) level or even
   • 2005, Roy Hughes, Painting and Decorating, page 44:

     ...the only action that will be required prior to decoration will be to wash down, make good and apply a fresh paint system.