Noun
makings
plural of making
makings pl (plural only)
That which is needed for something: necessary ingredients.
I have bread, mayonnaise, mustard, turkey, and lettuce: all the makings of a sandwich as far as I'm concerned.
The project has the makings of success: a strong leader, a committed workforce, and a workable plan.
He has the makings of a fine leader, and we, the nominating committee, are pleased to present him to the membership as our candidate.
Every intimacy carries secreted somewhere below its initial lovely surfaces, the ever-coiled makings of complete catastrophe. Elizabeth Gilbert
Even the pot-bellied abbot, who in the evening sits on his veranda with a paternal air, enjoying his coffee and picking the holes in his teeth, has in his innermost soul the makings of a Torquemada. José Maria Eça de Queiroz
You asked me whether you could learn to sing. I don't know. It could well be that you have the makings of a singer. It could well be that the world will give you the best that it has: glory, power, honor, what else is there? Palaces and parks, perhaps? Or merry meadows? And then what? Halldór Laxness
Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a peeping Tom, and I will show you the makings of a dramatist. Kenneth Tynan
Writers are there to write, not experience things. If you want to experience things, become a pirate or a Bookhunter. If you want to write, write. If you can't find the makings of a story inside yourself, you won't find them anywhere. Walter Moers
The pigeon brings the makings and the chick makes the nest. Sicilian Proverb