pay
Part of speech: verb
noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English payen, from Old French paiier (“pay”), from Medieval Latin pācāre (“to settle, satisfy”) from Latin pācāre (“to pacify”). In this sense, displaced native Old English ġield (“pay”) and ġieldan (“to pay”), whence Modern English yield.
Inflected forms:
form: pays
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: paying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: past
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: pay
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: pay
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: archaic
first-person
past
singular
form: pay
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: payest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: paidest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: paidst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: payedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: pays
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: payeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
singular
third-person
form: pay
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
plural
form: pay
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
subjunctive
form: pay
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: paying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: paid
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: payed
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: pays
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: pay cash or pay in cash, pay by credit/debit card
pay in dollars/euros, etc.
How much will the job pay?
She is paying him to clean the place up.
He doesn't have money, but he pays rent in chores and housework.
He was paid 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.
gloss: To deposit into an account.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: I pay a portion of each paycheck into a savings account.
gloss: To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: to pay compensation, to pay a fine
She offered to pay the bill.
He is paying his debt to society.
He was allowed to go as soon as the kidnappers were paid.
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.
gloss: To be profitable; to be worth it.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
Crime doesn’t pay.
It will pay to wait.
gloss: To cover, as a cost.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Those investments paid for her college education.
gloss: To yield as a benefit.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to pay dividends; to pay interest
You will get paid from this investment yearly.
gloss: To give (something else than money).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to pay attention, to pay tribute, to pay a visit
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.
gloss: To suffer consequences, especially justly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
gloss: To admit that a joke, punchline, etc., was funny.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.'
gloss: Money given in return for work; salary or wages.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.
The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
gloss: A paying job; a paying concern.
pos: noun
tags: countable
rare
examples: "You can if you like. I'll drop in each day to see how she gets on." "Oh, will you? That's a relief. All the same, I wouldn't say she was a very good pay, if you spend too much time on her." "Oh, bad pays make up half a doctor's job."
gloss: Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: pay toilet
gloss: Pertaining to or requiring payment.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: pay television
Synonyms: ante up
cough up
defray
do the needful
expend
foot the bill
fork out
fork over
imburse
lay out
pay
pay the freight
pay the piper
pay the price
pay up
pony up
quit
shell out
spend
stump up
Antonyms: buy
earn
default
levant
repudiate
steal
welsh
discharge
waive
Related words: cash on the barrelhead
plunk
Derived words: ability to pay
borrow from Peter to pay Paul
buy and pay for
consent or pay
crime doesn't pay
devil to pay
forepay
hell to pay
high-paying
if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
low-paying
mispay
not pay any mind
outpay
overpay
payable
pay-and-display
pay and display
pay-as-you-eat
pay-as-you-go
pay attention
pay a visit
pay back in someone's own coin
pay-by-wave
pay dearly
pay dirt
pay dividends
pay down
payee
payer
pay for
pay for itself
pay for one's whistle
pay for play
pay good money after bad
pay heed
pay homage to
pay home
pay-in slip
pay it forward
payment
pay nature's debt
pay no heed
pay no mind
pay off old scores
payola
pay one's addresses
pay one's debt to society
pay one's last respects
pay one's own freight
payor
pay or okay
pay or play
pay overs
pay-per-click
pay-per-install
pay per play
pay-per-view
pay someone's way
pay the debt of nature
pay the fiddler
pay the price
pay the rent
pay the ultimate price
pay through the nose
pay-to-play
pay to play
pay-to-stay
pay to stay
pay towards
pay-to-win
pay to win
pay what you want
pay with one's life
pitch and pay
play or pay
prepay
press F to pay respects
procure to pay
purchase to pay
rob Peter to pay Paul
short-pay
surpay
take-or-pay
take or pay
the devil to pay and no pitch hot or ready
underpay
unpay
you get what you pay for
copay
repay
pay train
autopay
back pay
base pay
basic pay
beyond one's pay grade
combat pay
danger pay
dead-pay
equal pay
equal pay for equal work
for-pay
gay for pay
gross pay
half-pay
half pay
hand pay
hazard pay
holiday pay
in the pay of
isolation pay
midpay
min pay
net pay
pay advice
payband
paybill
paybook
paybox
pay by bank
paycheck
pay check
pay cheque
paycheque
pay cut
payday
pay day
pay freeze
pay gap
pay grade
paygrade
payless
payline
paylist
payload
paymaster
paymeter
paymistress
pay-neutral
paynight
pay office
pay packet
PayPal
paypig
pay pig
pay piggy
paypoint
pay raise
payraise
pay rise
payrise
payroll
payrun
payscale
paysheet
paysite
payslip
pay spine
paystreak
pay stub
pay table
paythrough
paytriot
paywall
payware
postpay
say on pay
separation pay
severance pay
sick pay
take-home pay
payphone
pay phone
pay television
pay toilet
pay TV
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: maksaa
lang: French
word: payer
lang: Hungarian
word: fizet
lang: Hungarian
word: megfizet
lang: Hungarian
word: bűnhődik
lang: Hungarian
word: lakol
lang: Polish
word: płacić
lang: Polish
word: zapłacić
lang: Spanish
word: pagar
lang: Spanish
word: atenerse (a)