pay

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Pay and páy

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: pā, IPA(key): /peɪ/, [pʰeɪ]
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English payen, from Old French paier, from Medieval Latin pācāre (“to settle, satisfy”) from Latin pacare (“to pacify”). Displaced native Middle English yelden, yielden (“to pay”) (from Old English ġieldan (“to pay”)), Middle English schotten (“to pay, make payment”) (from Old English scot, ġescot (“payment”)).

Verb[edit]

pay (third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle paid or (archaic) payed)

  1. (transitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
    he paid him to clean the place up
    he paid her off the books and in kind where possible
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 17, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      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.
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48:
      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.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
    she offered to pay the bill
    he has paid his debt to society
    • Bible, Psalms xxxvii. 21
      The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lvcrece (First Quarto)‎[1], London: Printed by Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], OCLC 236076664:
      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.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      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.
  3. (transitive) To be profitable for.
    It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
  4. (transitive) To give (something else than money).
    to pay attention
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
      not paying me a welcome
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:
      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.
  5. (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.
    crime doesn’t pay
    it will pay to wait
  6. (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.
    He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.
  7. (intransitive) To suffer consequences.
    He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
Hypernyms[edit]
Hyponyms[edit]
Hyponyms of pay (to give money)
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from pay (verb)
Related terms[edit]
Terms related to pay (verb)
Descendants[edit]
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun[edit]

pay (countable and uncountable, plural pays)

  1. Money given in return for work; salary or wages.
    Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 10, in The Celebrity:
      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.
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from pay (noun)
Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

pay (not comparable)

  1. Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.
    pay toilet
  2. Pertaining to or requiring payment.
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Old French peier, from Latin picare (“to pitch”).

Verb[edit]

pay (third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle payed)

  1. (nautical, transitive) 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.
Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Azerbaijani[edit]

Other scripts
Cyrillic пај
Roman pay
Perso-Arabic پای‎

Noun[edit]

pay (definite accusative payı, plural paylar)

  1. share
  2. portion

Declension[edit]

Declension of pay
singular plural
nominative pay paylar
definite accusative payı payları
dative paya paylara
locative payda paylarda
ablative paydan paylardan
definite genitive payın payların
Possessive forms of pay
nominative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) payım paylarım
sənin (“your”) payın payların
onun (“his/her/its”) payı payları
bizim (“our”) payımız paylarımız
sizin (“your”) payınız paylarınız
onların (“their”) payı or payları payları
accusative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) payımı paylarımı
sənin (“your”) payını paylarını
onun (“his/her/its”) payını paylarını
bizim (“our”) payımızı paylarımızı
sizin (“your”) payınızı paylarınızı
onların (“their”) payını or paylarını paylarını
dative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) payıma paylarıma
sənin (“your”) payına paylarına
onun (“his/her/its”) payına paylarına
bizim (“our”) payımıza paylarımıza
sizin (“your”) payınıza paylarınıza
onların (“their”) payına or paylarına paylarına
locative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) payımda paylarımda
sənin (“your”) payında paylarında
onun (“his/her/its”) payında paylarında
bizim (“our”) payımızda paylarımızda
sizin (“your”) payınızda paylarınızda
onların (“their”) payında or paylarında paylarında
ablative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) payımdan paylarımdan
sənin (“your”) payından paylarından
onun (“his/her/its”) payından paylarından
bizim (“our”) payımızdan paylarımızdan
sizin (“your”) payınızdan paylarınızdan
onların (“their”) payından or paylarından paylarından
genitive
singular plural
mənim (“my”) payımın paylarımın
sənin (“your”) payının paylarının
onun (“his/her/its”) payının paylarının
bizim (“our”) payımızın paylarımızın
sizin (“your”) payınızın paylarınızın
onların (“their”) payının or paylarının paylarının

Cebuano[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English pi, Ancient Greek πεῖ (peî).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Hyphenation: pay

Noun[edit]

pay

  1. the name of the sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek
  2. (mathematics) an irrational and transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its diameter; approximately 3.14159265358979323846264338327950; usually written π

Kalasha[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay

  1. A goat

Kurdish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay ?

  1. share

Limos Kalinga[edit]

Adverb[edit]

pay

  1. too

Old Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From padre, from Latin patrem, accusative singular of pater (“father”), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay m

  1. (hypocoristic, usually childish) papa, dad, father

Synonyms[edit]

Coordinate terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Galician: pai
  • Portuguese: pai
    • Guinea-Bissau Creole: pai
    • Indo-Portuguese: pai
    • Kabuverdianu: pai
    • Kristang: pai
    • Sãotomense: pe
      • Annobonese: pe

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay m (plural pays)

  1. Obsolete spelling of pai

Quechua[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

pay

  1. he, she, it

See also[edit]

Quechua personal pronouns
singular plural
first-person ñuqa ñuqanchik (inclusive)
ñuqayku (exclusive)
second-person qam qamkuna
third-person pay paykuna

Spanish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English pie.

Noun[edit]

pay m (plural pays)

  1. pie (food)

Turkish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Turkic.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): [paj]
  • Hyphenation: pay

Noun[edit]

pay (definite accusative payı, plural paylar)

  1. portion
  2. (arithmetic) numerator

Declension[edit]

Inflection
Nominative pay
Definite accusative payı
Singular Plural
Nominative pay paylar
Definite accusative payı payları
Dative paya paylara
Locative payda paylarda
Ablative paydan paylardan
Genitive payın payların
Possessive forms
Singular Plural
1st singular payım paylarım
2nd singular payın payların
3rd singular payı payları
1st plural payımız paylarımız
2nd plural payınız paylarınız
3rd plural payları payları

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

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