From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
make it
v 1: continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.); "He
survived the cancer against all odds" [syn: survive,
pull through, pull round, come through, make it]
[ant: succumb, yield]
2: succeed in a big way; get to the top; "After he published his
book, he had arrived"; "I don't know whether I can make it in
science!"; "You will go far, my boy!" [syn: arrive, {make
it}, get in, go far]
3: go successfully through a test or a selection process; "She
passed the new Jersey Bar Exam and can practice law now"
[syn: pass, make it] [ant: bomb, fail, flunk,
flush it]