English · Idiom Candidate

make ends meet

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To have just enough money to cover expenses and basic needs.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Có đủ tiền để trang trải chi phí cơ bản

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to join two ends together

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

As you know, I ' ve lost my job, so I ' m having trouble making ends meet.

They had no machinery for making ends meet.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent đủ ăn (adjective) earning just enough to make ends meet or to sustain oneself without any surplus Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “make ends meet” mean?

To have just enough money to cover expenses and basic needs. Literally: to join two ends together

Is “make ends meet” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“đủ ăn” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.