Short answer: The correct phrase is “make do,” but “make due” is a common mistake. We’re a curious bunch, though, so let’s examine why.
This phrase combines the separate verbs “make,” meaning “to form (something) by putting parts together or combining substances; construct; create,” and “do,” meaning “to perform (an action, the precise nature of which is often unspecified).” When combined, “make do” means “to manage to get by,” whether that involves settling for less or improvising a different solution. If you add a hyphen, “make-do” can also be used as an adjective and a noun, as in “a make-do repair” or “the make-dos are working.” When the verb phrase originated in the early 19th century, it was sometimes said as “make it do,” as it appears in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in 1847: “‘Oh, very well!’ returned Miss Temple; ‘we must make it do, Barbara, I suppose.’”
The adjective and noun forms came later, with the noun form showing up at the end of the 19th century and the adjective in the 1920s. Rudyard Kipling wrote in “Tales of ‘The Trade’” in 1916: “The full tale of their improvisations and ‘make-do’s’ will probably never come to light.”
Writing “make due” is not a misspelling, but rather a malapropism, which is a mistake when someone incorrectly uses a similar-sounding word or phrase. What makes this malapropism particularly difficult to understand is that “make due” is not completely incorrect. As an adjective, “due” can mean sufficient, as in “due process” or “due diligence.” And until the 1940s, “make due” was a commonly accepted phrase.
However, “make do” won the test of time with the popularity of this saying: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” The quote has been attributed to President Calvin Coolidge, but its origin is uncertain. The sentiment certainly suited life during the Great Depression, when people had to make do. During World War II, the saying became a popular slogan in the U.S. and the U.K. as people were encouraged to ration food, gasoline, and other materials to support the war effort. The attitude also applied to the noun form of “make-do” as the term was extended into a longer phrase around WWII: “make-do-and-mend,” which implied there was a process of ongoing repair. A publication from 1947 includes a quote with the line, “This age of bits and pieces, queues, rationing, and make-do-and-mend.”
What I love about “make do” is that the phrase in itself is improvised. There wasn’t a word that described just what was needed, so it was invented by throwing together two verbs to create the verb we wanted. We do the best with what we have on hand.
