pay

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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 paiier (“pay”), from Medieval Latin pācāre (“to settle, satisfy”) from Latin pācāre (“to pacify”). Displaced native Middle English yelden, yielden (“to pay”) (from Old English ġieldan (“to pay”)) and Middle English schotten (“to pay, make payment”) (from Old English sċot, ġesċot (“payment”)).

Verb[edit]

pay (third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle paid or (obsolete) 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
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Psalms 37:21:
      The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lvcrece (First Quarto)‎[1], London: […] 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
    • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:
      not paying me a welcome
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, OCLC 491297620, page 9:
      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.
  8. (transitive) To admit that a joke, punchline, etc., was funny.
    I'll pay that.
    • 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 294:
      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.'
Conjugation[edit]
conjugation of pay
infinitive pay
present participle paying
past participle payed
simple progressive perfect perfect progressive
present I pay we pay I am paying we are paying I have payed we have payed I have been paying we have been paying
you pay you pay you are paying you are paying you have payed you have payed you have been paying you have been paying
he pays they pay he is paying they are paying he has payed they have payed he has been paying they have been paying
past I payed we payed I was paying we were paying I had payed we had payed I had been paying we had been paying
you payed you payed you were paying you were paying you had payed you had payed you had been paying you had been paying
he payed they payed he was paying they were paying he had payed they had payed he had been paying they had been paying
future I will pay we will pay I will be paying we will be paying I will have payed we will have payed I will have been paying we will have been paying
you will pay you will pay you will be paying you will be paying you will have payed you will have payed you will have been paying you will have been paying
he will pay they will pay he will be paying they will be paying he will have payed they will have payed he will have been paying they will have been paying
conditional I would pay we would pay I would be paying we would be paying I would have payed we would have payed I would have been paying we would have been paying
you would pay you would pay you would be paying you would be paying you would have payed you would have payed you would have been paying you would have been paying
he would pay they would pay he would be paying they would be paying he would have payed they would have payed he would have been paying they would have been paying
imperative pay
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]
  • Sranan Tongo: paysa
  • → Scottish Gaelic: pàigh
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]
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]

Anguthimri[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay

  1. (Mpakwithi) forehead
  2. (Mpakwithi) face

References[edit]

  • Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 187

Azerbaijani[edit]

Other scripts
Cyrillic пај
Roman pay
Perso-Arabic پای‎

Etymology[edit]

According to Nişanyan, from Persian پای‎ (pây, “foot”), with the sense ”share” originating from the Persian expression borrowed into Old Anatolian Turkish بای برابر‎ (pây-berâber, “equally, to the same proportion”, literally “equal foot”). The word is present in its modern sense in XIVth century Book of Dede Korkut.

The non-Oghuz Turkic cognates, such as Kirgiz and Yakut пай (pay, “share”) are, according to Nişanyan, a borrowing from the Ottoman Turkish پای‎, via Russian пай (paj).

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

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

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

Jakaltek[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Mayan *pahar.

Noun[edit]

pay

  1. skunk

References[edit]

  • Church, Clarence; Church, Katherine (1955) Vocabulario castellano-jacalteco, jacalteco-castellano‎[2] (in Spanish), Guatemala C. A.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, pages 65; 39

Kalasha[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay

  1. A goat

Limos Kalinga[edit]

Adverb[edit]

pay

  1. too

Northern Kurdish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Turkish pay.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

pay ?

  1. share

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. (Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru) pie (food)

Derived terms[edit]

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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