To make ends meet is to just manage to pay for life on the money you have. Struggle to make ends meet, barely make ends meet, working to make ends meet.
It is the standard phrase in reporting on the cost of living and always describes just managing rather than comfort. The ends may originally have been the ends of a rope brought together.
1phrasemake ends meetTo just manage to pay for life on the money you have.
“After he lost his job, they struggled to make ends meet.”
make ends meet is a managing.
Of uncertain origin, perhaps from the ends of a rope brought together, or from the ends of a household's accounts.
unknown. Perhaps originally referred to the ends of rope meeting, signifying continuity and therefore security and stability. Perhaps shifting later to refer to the attempt at making money last from one pay period to the next (i.e. the ends), thereby leaving no gap or break in the availability of funds. Compare French joindre les deux bouts literally “join the two ends” with the same meaning. The form make both ends meet is attested from the 17th century, and was the more common form until the early-to-mid 20th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Idioms