Looking for a synonym of 'to get by on", I came across "to make do with" and immediately started wondering what the past form of the latter could be. "Make did", "made do", made did" - they all sound weird — but one of them may be the right usage as soon as any other suggestions seem to me just crazy guesses.
Of course I wouldn't use it in the past tense other than in the sentence with "could make do with". It's an idiom, but it's also a verb, and there must be a rule for the cases like this, I believe.
If there is the rule, what is it?
Could you give a couple of examples of the like verbs/verb collocations (I'm not sure about the term)?