Wiktionary
vb. To earn enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family.
Usage examples of "make a living".
His mother had no idea that he would ever be able, or indeed willing, to make a living.
The Found Ones had been teaching her modern technical skills so she could make a living doing something besides selling herself.
At first, he thought it was simply distaste for sharing company with a girl who'd been forced by circumstances to sell the only commodity she possessed to make a living on the station: herself.
He knew how other kids Margo's age had been forced to make a living in New York.
I, like many members of my species, make a living as a bounty hunter.
This isn't a very good farm, and it's all you can do to make a living for the rest of us out of it.
We make a living by selling our products to consumers, to the public.
A person that no one has ever heard of who unaccountably manages to make a living writing prefaces.
Two previous trips told him there wasn't enough commerce past this system to make a living for a tenth of them.
Since all of these people have to make a living from the sale of the thing, it is not clear how the price can be held down, but apparently this is done by making the most of the economies of production in bulk.
By 1942, however, he has become so poor that he has to live in a small cottage and tutor students like Peter to make a living.