pay
Definitions
- To cover (the bottom of a vessel, a seam, a spar, etc.) with tar or pitch, or a waterproof composition of tallow, resin, etc.; to smear.
- To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
- To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
- To reduce (a debt) through payment.
- To be profitable for.
- To give over the full monetary amount demanded.
- To yield as a benefit.
- To earn a given right or position through hard work, long-term experience, or suffering: She paid her dues in small-town theaters before being cast in a Broadway play.
- To give (something else than money).
- To contribute one's own share; pay for oneself.
- To be profitable or worth the effort.
- To bear the consequences of something.
- To discharge an obligation or debt.
- To pay excessively.
- To suffer consequences.
- To coat or cover (seams of a ship, for example) with waterproof material such as tar or asphalt.
- To admit that a joke, punchline, etc., was funny.
- to coat or cover (seams, a ship's bottom, etc.) with pitch, tar, or the like.
- To exact revenge for or from:avenge, pay off, redress, repay, requite, vindicate.
- Payment for work done:compensation, earnings, emolument, fee, hire, remuneration, salary, stipend, wage.
Conjugation
Browse the table or drill it — all tenses, moods, and persons of pay.
Equivalents
Examples
“How much will the job pay⟳?”
“he paid him to clean⟳ the place⟳ up”
“he paid her off the books and in kind where possible”
“This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own⟳ resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent⟳ of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.”
“Admiral Hackett: You can pay⟳ a soldier to fire a gun. You can pay⟳ him to charge the enemy. But you can't pay⟳ him to believe⟳.”
“The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like⟳ to boast about[…]and so on. But the real way to build⟳ a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control⟳ of their own⟳ attention. Partly, this is a result⟳ of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay⟳ for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained.”
“she offered to pay⟳ the bill”
“he has paid his debt to society”
“The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.”
“The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt.”
“Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study⟳ of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make⟳ it easy for all sorts of firms to generate⟳ what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process⟳ of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.”
“It didn't pay⟳ him to keep⟳ the store open⟳ any more.”
“to pay⟳ dividends or interest⟳”
“to pay⟳ attention”
“not paying me a welcome⟳”
“They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore⟳, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.”
“crime doesn’t pay⟳”
“it will pay⟳ to wait⟳”
“He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.”
“He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn⟳.”
“Sutho took a pull⟳ at his Johnny Walker and Coke and laughed that trademark laugh⟳ of his and said: `Okay. I'll pay⟳ that all right.'”
CEFR level
A1
Beginner
This word is part of the CEFR A1 vocabulary — beginner level.
This word is part of the CEFR A1 vocabulary — beginner level.
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