Dictionary

make sure en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Meanings

1. To ensure that something specific happens, is done etc., or of something happening.
   • I expected to be able to get to the interview on time, but I left home earlier than usual just to make sure.
   • I'm going to make sure that I get to the interview on time.
   • "We want to do everything we can to make sure everyone has a hassle-free journey. 2022 January 26, “Network News: TSSA opposes ScotRail's booking office proposals”, in RAIL, number 949, page 28:
2. To make oneself certain (of something, or that something is the case); to verify, to ascertain.
   • When you leave, make sure you have locked the door behind you.
   • Make sure of your sources before you publish.
3. (archaic) To feel certain of something; to be convinced.
   • “The gun!” said he. “I have thought of that,” said I, for I made sure he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. “They could never get the gun ashore, and if they did, they could never haul it through the woods.” 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
   • 'You won't stay? Not even for one night? Oh, but, Kate, there's so much to do. I made sure you'd both stay to help me,' Dot said, despair coursing through her at the thought of the solitary tasks ahead. 2012, Judith Saxton, Family Feeling:
   • ‘I put my name to a bill for Fred; it was for a hundred and sixty pounds. He made sure he could meet it himself.’ 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book III, chapter 24:
   • "You—you said God would bring papa back, if I prayed to Him, and I did, Ann. I've asked God every day, and I've been expecting papa ever since, and when Jack brought the dinner to-day, I made sure he had come at last." 1888, Emma Leslie, “Chapter 6”, in The Sunday at Home, Religious Tract Society, page 575:
4. (obsolete) To betroth.
   • […] then his marriage shall be ſolemniz'd, / For wrote you not that I haue made him ſure / Vnto our Coſin, the Earle of Gloſters heire. 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:
   • Women are borne, but to make fooles of men. She that's made sure to him, she loves not well, Her banes are ask'd here, but she wedds in hell; Parents that match their children gainst their will, Teach them not how to live, but how to kill. 1631 (year of first performance), Thomas Dekker, The Wonder of a Kingdom, act V:

Forms

Relateds

sure of

Synonyms

* see · to it (ensure) · make certain · make doubly sure

Translations (38)

it accertarsi (to verify) · uk пересві́дчуватися (to verify) · ru удостове́риться (to verify) · nl zorgen (to verify) · grc ὁράω (to verify) · pl upewnić (to verify) · nl opletten (to verify) · eo certiĝi (to verify) · sv säkerställa (to verify) · uk перекона́тися (to verify) · uk переко́нуватися (to verify) · fr s'assurer (to verify) · uk впевня́тися (to verify) · ar تَأَكَّدَ (to verify) · it assicurarsi (to verify) · kk көз жеткізу (to verify) · es velar por (to verify) · gv shickyree (to verify) · fi varmistaa (to verify) · es cerciorarse (to verify) · et kindlustama (to verify) · de sicherstellen (to verify) · es asegurarse de (to verify) · aeb مشِاش (to verify) · pl upewniać (to verify) · et veenduma (to verify) · pt certificar-se (to verify) · sv se till (to verify) · de zusehen (to verify) · it sincerarsi (to verify) · it verificare (to verify) · pl upewnić się (to verify) · uk пересві́дчитися (to verify) · pl upewniać się (to verify) · ro asigura (to verify) · kk тексеріп алу (to verify) · uk впе́внитися (to verify) · de sichergehen (to verify)