Meaning of Payroll | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A list of employees who receive salary or wages, together with the amounts due to each.
2. The total sum of money paid to employees.
3. The calculation of salaries and wages and the deduction of taxes etc.; the department in a company responsible for this.
4. Bribes paid to people.
   euphemistic

Equivalents

Examples

“Magazines kept aristocrats on the payroll to facilitate access to jet-set playgrounds like Corfu and Mustique.”

“I know that the deal started with the boys in Santiago, because they’ve been on the d’Anconia pay roll for centuries — well, no, ‘pay roll’ is an honorable word, it would be more exact to say that d’Anconia Copper has been paying them protection money for centuries — isn't that what your gangsters call it?”

“We can spread a rumor this cop was dirty. Look, Tom, we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we?”

CEFR level