Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to get on with, to socialize with; usu. with adv. meaning well or badly.

1820		W. Irving in Life and Letters (1864) II 30: Drop me a line and let me know what subjects you execute, and how you and Murray make out together .
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 258: He knows too that I’m too cranky to make out with most people.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 53: I understand how you and Walter are making out so well.

2. (orig. US, also make) to get along, to make the grade, to succeed.

1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 49: An old lady, that was spinning up there, was asked how they made out.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 21: How’d I make out? Oh, only about $50 to $100 a day, clean, that’s all.
1916		J.G. Cruickshank Black Talk i: How do you make out?
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Jelly Bean’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 205: Hello, old boy, how you making out?
1939		R. Chandler ‘I’ll Be Waiting’ in Red Wind (1946) 135: ‘You’re slipping.’ ‘I make out.’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 33: I tried hard not to worry but I didn’t make out so good.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 166: How are you making out with Reggie?
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 179: Only crazy people can make here. There’s no room for normality.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 8: I wondered how Pops was making out working a pick and shovel in that falling snow.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 236: ‘How have you been making out, Terry?’ He smiled openly. Sneed didn’t smile. ‘Getting by. Still nicking a few, you know.’.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 65: My back pains me some, but I got my pills. I make out all right.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 305: You two’ll make out like bandits if only you got the brains to go along.

3. (US) to seduce a woman or man.

1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 164: She just could not make out in Sheffield. Nobody seemed interested.
1953		W. Eyster Far from the Customary Skies 245: What was there for a guy to do now? Drink. Go to dances. Try to make out.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 34: [of a gay man] Perennialhustler easytomakeout.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 54: You can even make out with chicks.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 13: Man sets here jawin about women like it aint a fact that the only place he’ll ever make out is the Home for the Blind.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 325: I guess I’ll keep going. The thing is, I really want to know how Marius makes out with Cornelia.
2001		Week (US) 4 May 8: Has she ever made out in a car?
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 59: Some couples had parked away from the streetlights and were dry humping and making out.

4. to stay, to make one’s place.

1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 280: Fort made out on the floor that night.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 111: I’ll make out on the floor.

5. (US) to indulge in hetero- or homosexual foreplay or petting but not necessarily intercourse.

1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 48: Telling the guys [...] how he had made out.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 297: Even in the worst days of the war I never had to make out with anything less than a major.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 152: I wanna see how you and lover boy make out.
1973		M. Scorsese Mean Streets [film script] 65: I saw her [...] under a bridge in Jersey, making out with a nigger.
1983		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 11 Aug. Stacy (a guy) and I pretended we were making out in the bushes while we were hiding. Shawn, I think, was a bit jealous.
1998		D. Clowes Ghost World 36: We’d go over to his house and make out every day until 5 when his mom got home.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 83: He’d made out with black women but had never had one in bed, not all the way.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] A couple furiously making out at the end of the bar wasn’t unacceptable.

6. in attrib. use of sense 5.

2011

R.F. Coleman ‘Requiem for Spider’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] There hadn’t been this much feeling up in Brooklyn since Candy DiNardo’s parents went on a cruise and she invited everyone [...] to her house for a make-out party.