Makings, subs. (colloquial).—1. Material for anything.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xxxvii. 324. He seemed to have the makings
of a very nice fellow about him.
1858. Frazer’s Mag., Aug., 220. Men who have in them the makings of
better preachers.
1876. G. Eliot, D. Deronda, Bk. ii. ch. xvi. ‘You’ve not the
makings of a Porson in you, or a Leibnitz either.’
1885. World, 1 April, p. 18, col. 2. If I mistake not, he has the
makings of a first-class steeplechaser about him.