make-or-break

[meyk-er-breyk]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

either completely successful or utterly disastrous.
a make-or-break marketing policy.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of make-or-break¹

First recorded in 1915–20

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Idioms and Phrases

Cause either total success or total ruin, as in This assignment will make or break her as a reporter. This rhyming expression, first recorded in Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1840), has largely replaced the much older (16th-century) alliterative synonym make or mar, at least in America.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Being on the front end of projects has given Arden a window onto how make-or-break artistic decisions are made.

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Though “Sinners” is far from the determined indie film that “Fruitvale Station” was, trades are responding to Coogler’s latest as though the opening weekend is a make-or-break moment for the film.

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According to Kerr, the snack assortment may not be the single make-or-break factor in a dispensary’s success, but it’s a key part of the experience, especially when you consider how much of retail, cannabis or otherwise, is about the story you tell through sight.

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France's Marine Le Pen faces a make-or-break moment on Monday, as a judge rules on whether she should be banned from the next presidential election.

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But it's being seen by many as a make-or-break title for French publisher Ubisoft, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

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make one's way make out

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