He was making her up for the longest time

[Mida Karato]

Ciao a tutt*!
Sto leggendo un libro in inglese e c'è una descrizione della routine di una coppia.
A un certo punto si descrive quanto segue:
"(...) He loved that car. Kept blankets over the seats to keep them spotless. Only took the blankets off when he had a date, which was every Saturday night with Baby, his Swedish girlfriend. We thought he was making her up for the longest time. They usually went to the drive-in, etc..."
Cosa vuol dire qui il verbo "make up"? Qualcosa del tipo "pensava di rimanere/spassarsela con lei per mooooolto tempo?"

Grazie a tutt*, di nuovo!
Mida

 

[theartichoke]

Ciao Mida Karato,

My immediate thought on this one is that the speaker means that he (I'm assuming he's a he) and his friends thought that the owner of the car didn't actually have a Swedish girlfriend: i.e., they thought he was "making her up" in the sense of making up (inventing) a story that's not true. There's nothing else I can think of that fits the context.

"For the longest time" then would refer to how long the speaker thought this about the car owner: "For a very long time, we thought he was inventing this Swedish girlfriend of his."

 

[JasonNPato]

I agree. This is the only interpretation that makes sense.

 

[CPA]

Che intendesse "making up to her", nel senso di corteggiare? Cioè: noi pensavamo che fosse quella con cui aveva filato più a lungo.

 

[GavinW]

Che intendesse "making up to her", nel senso di corteggiare? Cioè: noi pensavamo che fosse quella con cui aveva filato più a lungo.

This was my thought to. In fact, I surmised that there may well be a relatively new meaning of the phrasal verb "to make sb up" (probably AE, probably youth slang) that has this meaning (ie to date sb, or to go through the preliminaries of having a relationship with sb).

(EDIT: But I think CPA meant "making her up" not "making up to her".)

 

[CPA]

No, CPA meant "making up to her". From the Free Dictionary:

make up to someone (Informal) flirt with, be all over, come on to, chase after, court, pursue, woo, run after, chat up (informal), curry favour with, make overtures to, make eyes at She watched as her best friend made up to the man she herself loved.

 

[GavinW]

Ah yes, sorry, I read your post wrong, and misunderstood the logic of your argument. The phrasal verb in question does indeed seem to have that meaning.

 

[JasonNPato]

No, CPA meant "making up to her". From the Free Dictionary:

make up to someone (Informal) flirt with, be all over, come on to, chase after, court, pursue, woo, run after, chat up (informal), curry favour with, make overtures to, make eyes at She watched as her best friend made up to the man she herself loved.

I suppose if it's in the Free Dictionary, it might have this meaning, but I've never heard this slang (in AmE).