Meaning
"Make up for" means to compensate for something bad, lost, or missed. It is often used when trying to balance or correct a negative situation with something positive.
Grammar and Usage
- Phrasal verb
- Structure: make up for + noun/gerund
- Transitive (requires an object).
Examples of sentence structure:
- make up for something
- make up for doing something
Common Phrases
- make up for lost time
- make up for the inconvenience
- make up for a mistake
- make up for being late
Collocations
- verb + make up for: try to make up for, need to make up for
- noun + make up for: compensation to make up for, effort to make up for
- adjective + make up for: enough to make up for, hardly makes up for
Examples
- She worked hard to make up for her earlier mistakes.
- He bought her flowers to make up for forgetting her birthday.
- Nothing can make up for the loss of a loved one.
- The team trained extra hours to make up for their lack of experience.
- The company offered a discount to make up for the delay.
- He arrived early to make up for being late yesterday.
- They are trying to make up for lost time after the project was delayed.
- Extra practice can make up for natural talent sometimes.
Synonyms or Related
- compensate for
- atone for
- offset
- redress
- rectify
Antonym
- worsen
- neglect
- aggravate