pay

pay1 [ peı ] (present participle paying; past tense and past participle paid [ peıd ] ) verb ***

1. ) intransitive or transitive to give money in order to buy something:

pay for: Let me pay for dinner.

pay someone for something: Can I pay you for this?

pay by: Will you be paying by cash, check, or credit card?

pay with: I'd like to pay with my credit card.

pay in dollars/pounds etc.: Can I pay in dollars?

pay (in) cash: There's a reduction if you pay cash.

pay the bill/check: Can I pay the bill, please?

a ) intransitive or transitive to give money to someone who does a job for you:

pay someone to do something: We had to pay them over $300 to fix it.

pay someone for something: We still haven't paid them for the repairs to the roof.

pay to have/get something done: Now I'll have to pay to get the car fixed.

b ) transitive to give someone their salary:

Some of the workers haven't been paid for weeks.

c ) intransitive or transitive to give a company, institution, etc. money that you owe them:

We'll probably pay more in tax this year.

Did you pay the gas bill?

2. ) intransitive or transitive if a job pays a particular amount of money, you get that amount for doing it:

She was in a job paying over $60,000 a year.

My new job pays well.

a ) intransitive if a business pays, it earns money:

We have a lot of hard work ahead if we're going to make the business pay.

3. ) intransitive or transitive to have a good result:

crime doesn't pay: The message you get from the movie is simple: Crime doesn't pay.

it pays to do something: It pays to cover the pool to keep out falling leaves.

it pays someone to do something: It would pay you to get it properly checked.

4. ) intransitive to suffer because of something you have done:

It was an outrage, and somebody was going to pay.

pay for: They had made him look like a fool and now they were going to pay for it.

pay dearly for something (=suffer a lot because of something): We may pay dearly for our arrogance.

make someone pay (for something): She had ruined his life and now he was going to make her pay.

pay court to someone LITERARY

to try to make someone like you by showing them how much you admire or love them

pay someone a compliment

to say something nice about someone

pay dividends

to bring you a lot of benefit:

Thorough lesson planning always pays dividends.

pay for itself

if something that you have bought pays for itself, it allows you to save as much money as you paid when you bought it:

A more efficient machine would pay for itself within a year.

pay good money for something

to pay a lot for something: used for emphasizing that you spent a lot, especially when it has not been worth it:

I paid good money for those shoes, and you've only worn them twice.

pay heed VERY FORMAL

to consider something or give it your attention:

pay heed to: The government had paid no heed to agricultural advisers.

pay lip service to something

to say that you support something although you do not really, especially when you do nothing to prove your support:

Most people only paid lip service to the state religion.

pay the penalty/price for something

to have to deal with the bad effects of something you have done:

One day you will all pay the price for your selfish behavior.

pay someone/something a visit/call

to visit someone or something:

I think it's time we paid the school a visit.

pay through the nose (for something) INFORMAL

to pay much too much for something:

In the restaurants downtown, you pay through the nose for your drinks.

pay tribute/homage to someone

to say or do something that shows you respect and admire someone a lot

pay your respects (to someone) FORMAL

1. ) to visit someone or send them a greeting:

Please pay my respects to your mother.

2. ) pay your (last) respects (to someone) to go to someone's funeral:

Thousands turned up to pay their last respects to a great leader.

pay your way

to pay for everything you need or use yourself, instead of allowing or expecting other people to pay for you:

Your children grow up and they start to pay their way.

,pay `back phrasal verb transitive

1. ) to give someone the same amount of money that you borrowed from them:

I'll be able to pay you back next week.

I don't think we can afford to pay the full amount back now.

pay someone something back: She'll pay us the rest back when she gets her paycheck.

2. ) to do something bad to someone because they have done something bad to you:

pay someone back for something: She knew how to pay them back for the trouble they had caused.

,pay `down phrasal verb transitive AMERICAN

to pay a DEBT (=an amount of money you owe) in small amounts over a long period of time:

Should we use the surplus to cut taxes or to pay down the national debt?

,pay `in phrasal verb transitive

to put money into your bank account

`pay ,into phrasal verb transitive

pay into something, pay something into something to invest money in something such as an INSURANCE POLICY or a PENSION FUND so that you will receive money in the future:

She pays into the employees' pension plan.

,pay `off phrasal verb

1. ) intransitive if something that you do pays off, it brings you some benefit:

All those weeks of studying will pay off when you take the exam.

2. ) transitive to give someone money so that they will do something bad or dishonest for you:

There were suspicions that officials had been paid off.

a ) to give someone money so that they will not do something that will cause you problems, especially by telling people about something bad you have done:

They threatened to tell reporters about him unless he paid them off.

3. ) transitive to give someone all the money you have borrowed from them to buy something:

Only another six months and the house will be paid off.

4. ) transitive to stop employing a worker and give them any money they are owed:

Over 1,000 workers will be paid off if this factory closes.

,pay `out phrasal verb

1. ) transitive to spend or pay money, especially a lot of money:

We've paid out thousands of dollars in health insurance over the years.

a ) intransitive or transitive to provide money from an amount invested over a period of time:

It'll be a few years before our investments start paying out.

2. ) transitive TECHNICAL if you pay out a rope, you gradually let it become straight and long so that it is no longer wound in a series of circles

,pay `up phrasal verb intransitive

to pay money that you owe, especially when you are unwilling to pay:

We're waiting for the insurance company to pay up.

pay

pay 2 [ peı ] noun uncount ***

money that you receive for doing your job:

They were demanding higher pay.

pay raise: He had hoped for a pay raise, not just a promotion.

basic pay (=your pay without extra payments): The basic pay is so low that you end up putting in lots of overtime.

take-home pay (=your pay after taxes, etc. have been removed): His take-home pay was only around 70 dollars a week.

a. connected with pay:

a pay increase: They received a pay increase that was much higher than expected.

a pay freeze (=a decision not to increase pay): A pay freeze is thought to be likely.

b. vacation/maternity/sick etc. pay money that you receive for a period when you are not working, for example because you are on vacation, having a baby, or sick

in the pay of someone

working for someone, especially doing something secret and dishonest:

It emerged that some congressional staffers were in the pay of the drug companies.