make sure

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. [from 16th c.]

   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. [from 17th c.]

   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. [from 18th c.]
   • 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.
   • 1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:

     […] 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.

   • 1631 (year of first performance), Thomas Dekker, The Wonder of a Kingdom, act V:

     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.

Synonyms

• make certain
• make doubly sure
• (ensure): see to it

Translations

to verify

• Dutch: zorgen (nl), opletten (nl)
• Estonian: veenduma, kindlustama
• Finnish: varmistaa (fi)
• French: s’assurer (fr)
• German: sicherstellen (de), sichergehen, zusehen (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὁράω (horáō) (+infinitive)

• Italian: assicurarsi (it), accertarsi (it), sincerarsi, verificare (it)
• Manx: shickyree
• Polish: upewniać impf (someone else), upewnić (pl) pf (someone else), upewniać się (oneself), upewnić się (oneself)
• Portuguese: certificar-se
• Romanian: asigura (ro)
• Russian: удостове́риться (ru) (udostovéritʹsja)
• Spanish: asegurarse de, cerciorarse (es)
• Swedish: se till (sv), säkerställa (sv)
• Ukrainian: впевня́тися impf (vpevnjátysja), впе́внитися pf (vpévnytysja), переко́нуватися impf (perekónuvatysja), перекона́тися pf (perekonátysja), пересві́дчуватися impf (peresvídčuvatysja), пересві́дчитися pf (peresvídčytysja)

See also

• sure of