make-or-break
[ meyk-er-breyk ]
/ ˈmeɪk ərˈbreɪk /
adjective
either completely successful or utterly disastrous: a make-or-break marketing policy.
Origin of make-or-break
First recorded in 1915–20
Words nearby make-or-break
make with,
make-ahead,
make-and-break,
make-believe,
make-do,
make-or-break,
make-peace,
make-ready,
make-up,
make-work,
makeba
Idioms and Phrases with make or break
make or break
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.