Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) to be successful; thus make it big, make it good.

1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 20 Mar. 3/3: There was one girl [...] who, although a child, had been making it all right, (so it seemed to me) with one of the young swells.
1906		in Variety 24 Mar. 8: The hams that can’t make it anywhere think it’s a walkover in vaudeville [HDAS].
1920		‘The Bullin Mr. Stavin’ Chain’ in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 179: Well, you kain’t make it down / Like the bullin’ Mr. Stavin’ Chain.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 179: You can make it as easy as falling off a log.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues [dedication] To the sweet-talkers, the gumbeaters, the high-jivers, out of the gallion for good and never going to take low again. (You got to make it, daddy.).
1956		J. Osborne Look Back in Anger Act I: Don’t you worry, he’ll make it. And, what’s more, he’ll do it better than anybody else!
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 96: Thinking you’ll make it if you hang around here, because once it was an exciting place.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 74: They young blacks were beginning [...] to know that they were going to make it. [Ibid.] 197: Sam had always wanted to make it big.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 114: Everybody was telling us that we were going to make it big.
1992		V. Headley Yardie 24: Whapp’n, you don’t wan’ me fe make it ina England?
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 6: He looked a bit like Otis Redding before he’d made it big.

(b) to subsist, to survive, often as phr. just barely making it, also used in greeting, as in How you making it?

1861		W. Collins Tom Tiddler’s Ground IV in All Year Round Extra Christmas No. 12 Dec. 22/1: They were artisans and farm-labourers who couldn’t make it out in the old country.
1887		M. Roberts Western Avernus (1924) 186: Hallo, boys, how are you making it?
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 58: How’re you making it this morning, chum?
1910		J. London ‘Flush of Gold’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1288: How’s Dave been makin’ it lately? Strikin’ it as rich as ever, I suppose?
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 279: Wel, old boy, how you making it?
1940		C. Himes ‘Looking Down the Street’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 84: We’ll make it; we’ve always made it.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 43: Louie had a hard time making it.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 224: He had made it on his own.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 27: How could a schoolteacher explain that her own son was having trouble making it in school?
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 326: Hey, don’t look so blue. We made it.
1997		L. Davies Candy 229: It was all we could do to make it through one day.

(c) to achieve (something).

1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the Secret Service vi: Make it, to appropriate, to gain a desired point.
1885		W.D. Howells Silas Lapham 108: He jumped on board the steam-boat. [...] ‘Just made it,’ he said.
1912		R.A. Wason Friar Tuck 255: Badger-face tried to raise himself on his elbow, but he could n’t quite make it.
1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 41: We jes gotta make it this time.

(d) to manage, usu. in context of movement.

1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 87: ‘We could make it if they had the souls of clams,’ Kit told Shorty [...] ‘We could have made it to-day if they hadn’t turned back.’.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 155: Don’t care if I’m locked up all day if’e makes it. Go on, Comny!
1936		C. Himes ‘The Visiting Hour’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 233: I’ll make it. Just let go. And if I can’t, I’ll make it anyway.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 166: Don’t lean so hard, Zosh. I can’t hardly make it.
1955		E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 82: ‘Think you’ll make it, teach?’ West asked.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 137: Just let me git one more chance. I know I’ll make it this time.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 91: ‘You’ll make it.’ ‘I’ll make it — but goddam! I ain’t been convicted yet.’.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 50: I’m afraid I can’t make it.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 72: The guys who originally were supposed to be here couldn’t make it.

(e) (US prison) to be granted parole.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 808: made it – Granted a parole.

(f) to survive, to stay alive.

1945		J.T. Adams Mountain Murder 23: ‘How is he?’ Haynes asked. ‘He won’t make it,’ said Fields, shaking his head.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 670: Y’ think Ah’m gonna make it?
1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 79: Shit, Sarge, I ain’t gone make it. Oh damn, I’m gone die, ain’t ?
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 157: Word came back from the hospital that Bread didn’t make it.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 67: ‘He’s still in a coma?’ ‘The doctors aren’t sure he’ll make it’.

(g) to get on, to relate.

1952		J.H. Griffin the Devil rides outside 202: ‘And how’re you making it with Madame Renée?’ he asks.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 131: My father [...] Me and this cat can’t make it.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 209: I’d have married Irene and gone to San Francisco [...] We might have made it together.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 115: I developed a specially close relationship with Paul McCartney, but me and John couldn’t make it.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 138: That he and Lisa wouldn’t make it was almost predictable.

(h) to achieve a climax, to orgasm.

1959		‘Sheldon Lord’ 69 Barrow Street 69: ‘I just wish I could make it,’ she said. ‘That’s all I want. [...] I like it but it never happens for me’.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 22: You gotta look a long time [...] before you find a pross who ever makes it with a John.
c.1973		J. Thompson ‘Sunrise at Midnight’ in Fireworks (1988) 181: I haven’t been able to make it since we split.

(a) to do something, to visit or be at a place, to arrive.

1930		W.R. Burnett Iron Man 162: ‘Gonna come over and see me fight, champ?’ [...] ‘Don’t think I can make it.’.
1942		C. Himes ‘Strictly Business’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 141: It was thirty minutes to the hotel where Hot Papa lived. Sure made it in twelve flat.
1958		Milsap Participant Observation Journal in Wallace Skid Row (1965) 32: I guess I’m going to make it on the week end.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 83: Make it to church. Some of them Christer broads are all right.
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 91: My mind was made up. A year in Yugoslavia, and then on to join the young country of Israel [...] I never made it.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 30: Rents cannae make it. Boo-fucking-hoo.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 72: I may not make it tomorrow.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 10: Making it to the beach wasn’t as easy as he’d thought.

(b) to move, to get on, to run off; also as imper.

1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 10: ‘Straighten up and walk,’ I said, putting on the tough. I winked at him from the side. ‘Can you make it? Are you stinko?’ [...] He looked me over vaguely [...] ‘I have been,’ he breathed.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 25: ‘Let’s make it.’ ‘Make it?’ ‘Split [...] Cut out. Leave.’.
1967		J. Horton ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 11/1: Style may [...] be expressed in the loose walk, the jivey or dancing walk, the slow cool walk, the way one ‘chops’ or ‘makes it’ down the street.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 54: ‘Yeah, yeah man,’ Cowboy interrupted. ‘Make it, willya.’.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 71: Let’s make it out there in the alley.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 315: Ah got ‘ta make it main, you dig?
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 152: That guard dying, and then daisy and them makin’ it to Canada.