[ 'mAk ] (verb.) before 12th century. The earliest known use of the phrase is from Thomas Fuller’s The History of the Worthies of England of about 1661: “Worldly wealth he cared not for, desiring only to make both ends meet; and as for that little that lapped over he gave it to pious uses”. But, it is most likely that the idiom was of common usage long before being penned by Fuller.