make sure

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English

Verb

make sure (third-person singular simple present makes sure, present participle making sure, simple past and past participle made sure)

  1. To ensure that something specific happens, is done etc., or of something happening.
    I'm going to make sure that I get to the interview on time.
    I expected to be able to get to the interview on time, but I left home earlier than usual just to make sure.
    • 2022 January 26, “Network News: TSSA opposes ScotRail's booking office proposals”, in RAIL, number 949, page 28:
      "We want to do everything we can to make sure everyone has a hassle-free journey.
  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. (now rare) To feel certain of something; to be convinced.
    • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
      “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.”
    • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book III, chapter 24:
      ‘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.’
    • 1888, Emma Leslie, “Chapter 6”, in The Sunday at Home, Religious Tract Society, page 575:
      "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."
    • 2012, Judith Saxton, Family Feeling:
      '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.
  4. (obsolete) To betroth.

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Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia