Meaning of pay the piper | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To pay expenses for something, and thus be in a position to be in control.
   idiomatic
2. To pay a monetary or other debt or experience unfavorable consequences, especially when the payment or consequences are inevitable or a result of something one has enjoyed.
   idiomatic

Examples

“Those that pay the piper must command the tune.”

“Be off with you, my boy, and play with your caucuses and leading articles and historic parties and great leaders and burning questions and the rest of your toys. I am going back to my counting house to pay the piper and call the tune.”

“[T]he very constitution of society is based upon this volunteer system of paying the piper. Honest men pay the piper for rogues, and full purses for empty ones.”

“He wanted to get rich too quickly I suppose. . . . He's got to pay the piper.”

“Roosevelt never fully recovered his health, but he refused any regret. "I am always willing to pay the piper," he once wrote, "when I have had a good dance."”

CEFR level