make the world go around

• make the world go round
• make this world go around

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make the world go around (third-person singular simple present makes the world go around, present participle making the world go around, simple past and past participle made the world go around)

1. (idiomatic) To play an essential role in causing the things in life to work as they should; to underlie the fulfillment of the needs of human existence.
   • 1907, O. Henry, “Cupid á la carte”, in Heart of the West:

     "But say, Jeff, it's said that love makes the world go around. Let me tell you, the announcement lacks verification. . . . Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving!"

   • 1992 March 22, Vincent Canby, “Review/Film Festival: Roundelay Of Love On an Isle In Wartime”, in New York Times, retrieved 5 October 2015:

     Gabriele Salvatores's "Mediterraneo" is a deliberately charming comedy whose most daring conceit is that love, in one form and another, makes the world go around.

   • 2012 April 18, C. J., “Mann knows it's a fine line between eccentric, crazy”, in Minneapolis StarTribune, retrieved 5 October 2015:

     "It takes all kinds of people to make this world go around. . . . We all need to work together," she said.

   • 2014 January 15, Ilyce R. Glink, Samuel J. Tamkin, “How to get your finances in home-buying shape”, in Washington Post, retrieved 5 October 2015:

     Money makes the world go around. And every year we make resolutions to save more of it, invest it more profitably and spend more wisely.

   • 2015 September 12, Alisa Boswell, “FFA student talks about her passion”, in Potales News-Tribune, retrieved 5 October 2015:

     Waller said agriculture makes the world go around, and there would be no clothing and no food without it.

• Many nouns can be used as the subject of this predicate, but two common choices are money and love.