pay
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
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)
- (transitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
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he paid him to clean the place up; he paid her off the books and in kind where possible
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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.
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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.
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- (transitive, intransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
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she offered to pay the bill; he has paid his debt to society
- Bible, Psalms xxxvii. 21
- The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.
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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.
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- (transitive) To be profitable for.
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It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
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- (transitive) To give (something else than money).
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to pay attention
- William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
- not paying me a welcome
- 1909, Archibald Marshall, The Squire's Daughter, chapterI:
- 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.
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- (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.
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crime doesn’t pay; it will pay to wait
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- (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.
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He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.
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- (intransitive) To suffer consequences.
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He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
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Hypernyms[edit]
- (to give money): compensate
Hyponyms[edit]
Hyponyms of pay (to give money)
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from pay (verb)
Related terms[edit]
Terms related to pay (verb)
Translations[edit]
to give money in exchange for goods or services
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to discharge by giving or doing what is due or required
to give (e.g. attention)
to be profitable
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- 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)
- Money given in return for work; salary or wages.
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Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.
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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.
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Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from pay (noun)
Translations[edit]
money given in return for work
Adjective[edit]
pay (not comparable)
- Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.
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pay toilet
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- Pertaining to or requiring payment.
Translations[edit]
operable or accessible on deposit of coins
pertaining to or requiring payment
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)
- (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]
to cover with a waterproof substance
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Statistics[edit]
Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: pass · doing · note · #548: pay · red · unto · receive
Further reading[edit]
- pay in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- pay in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- pay at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams[edit]
Azeri[edit]
| Other scripts | |
|---|---|
| Cyrillic | пај |
| Roman | pay |
| Perso-Arabic | پای |
Noun[edit]
pay (definite accusative payı, plural paylar)
Declension[edit]
Declension of pay
Kalasha[edit]
Noun[edit]
pay
- A goat
Kurdish[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
pay ?
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
- (hypocoristic, usually childish) papa, dad, father
- 1525-1526, Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional, João de Gaia, B 1433: Vosso pai na rua (facsimile)
- Vosso pay na Rua / anta porta sua
- Your dad [is] on the street / before your door
- Vosso pay na Rua / anta porta sua
- 1525-1526, Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional, João de Gaia, B 1433: Vosso pai na rua (facsimile)
Synonyms[edit]
Coordinate terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Portuguese[edit]
Noun[edit]
pay m (plural pays)
- Obsolete spelling of pai
- 1545, Garcia de Resende, Liuro das obras de Garcia de Reſẽnde que trata da vida […] do christianiſſimo; muito alto ⁊ muyto poderoſo principe el Rey dõ João o ſegundo deſte nome, page 1:
- De ſeu pay ⁊ ſua mãy ⁊ ſeu nacimento.
- About his father and his mother and his birth.
- De ſeu pay ⁊ ſua mãy ⁊ ſeu nacimento.
- 1545, Garcia de Resende, Liuro das obras de Garcia de Reſẽnde que trata da vida […] do christianiſſimo; muito alto ⁊ muyto poderoſo principe el Rey dõ João o ſegundo deſte nome, page 1:
Quechua[edit]
Pronoun[edit]
pay
See also[edit]
Quechua personal pronouns
Turkish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Proto-Turkic.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
pay (definite accusative payı, plural paylar)
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Declension[edit]
declension of pay
possessive forms of pay
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
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- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
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- en:Nautical
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- tr:Arithmetic
