make head or tail of

• make heads or tails of (US)

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make head or tail of (third-person singular simple present makes head or tail of, present participle making head or tail of, simple past and past participle made head or tail of)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly in the negative, with can't/cannot) To understand even minimally.

   Antonyms: make head nor tail of, make neither head nor tail of

   See if you can make head or tail of the last section in this chapter. I'm baffled.

   He was unable to make head or tail of some of the pattern-solving puzzles in the IQ test.

2. To determine to be good or bad.

• coin toss
• heads or tails
• rhyme or reason