Reader question:

What's the meaning of someone “on the make”?

My comments:

If they’re on the make, they are going to do several things and this time, for a change, let’s go directly to examples and see exactly what they are up to when they’re “on the make” in different situations.

The first example, from Australian National University News (Something Rotten in the Pacific, Spring 2008):

“That said, many people in the Pacific – the intelligentsia, writers – have a very gothic view of what’s going on. They think everything is corrupt, politicians are on the make, and there are no selfless leaders who will stand above these things.”

In this case, politicians “on the make” are accused of working for money and personal gain instead of public good.

The second example from Guardian critic Douglas Coupland, discussing a book (Flights of fancy, The Guardian, June 29, 2004):

The book I’m telling people about right now is called Screening Party, by Dennis Hensley ofLos Angeles(published in theUSby Alyson Publications). It’s a quasi-novelized compilation of pieces that originally ran in British Premiere magazine, and it ought to have been presented as a novel, because that's what it is. Hensley and a group of six slightly damaged and shockingly funny LA friends have once-a-month screening parties at Dennis’s house. The movies range from Flashdance to Taxi Driver, and its take on pop culture is fast and furious. It’s a must-read, an X-ray perfect portrait of life when you’re young and on the make and working in and around the media world.

In this case, those who’re “young and on the make” are ambitious people who’d do anything to succeed, by fair means or foul.

And finally, this example from On The Scene.MSNBC.com (October 27, 2006), in which NBC Middle East Correspondent Richard Engel discusses the stress US troops face in the field and at home:

How war has changed Saigon: Comfort women, an embarrassing shot from the medic, booze, pot, secrets from wives at home. Soldiers here say, “not this time.”

Now they’re worried the tables have turned, and that the soldiers’ wives are on the make while they live like monks on bases.

“The extent of our social lives is a trip to the porta-john with an FHM magazine,” a soldier told me.  The troops here worry about “The Jody.”“Jody?”I’d never heard of it. I know al-Qaida in Iraq, the Mahdi army, and other nefarious death squads that want to kill American troops. But Jody? I drew a blank.

A soldier filled me in: “Jody is the guy back home with you wife or your girlfriend,” he said, suddenly deadly serious. “He’s the guy hiding behind a corner, behind the curtain, hiding in the closet.”

In this case, soldier’s wives who are on the make are promiscuous and aggressive in their sexual advances. In other words, they are constantly looking to get laid while their husbands do or die inIraq.