Pay

Pronunciation

• enPR: pā, IPA: /peɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

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")).

Full definition of pay

Verb

1. (transitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 17, 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.
• 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, The tao of tech, 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. he paid him to clean the place up;  he paid her off the books and in kind where possible
3. (ambitransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
• Bible, Psalms xxxvii. 21The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.
• 2013-06-22, T time, 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.
4. she offered to pay the bill;  he has paid his debt to society
5. (transitive) To be profitable for.
   It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
6. (transitive) To give (something else than money).
• William Shakespearenot paying me a welcome
7. to pay attention
8. (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.
   crime doesn’t pay;   it will pay to wait
9. (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.
   He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.
10. (intransitive) To suffer consequences.
    He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.

Derived terms

Hypernyms

• (to give money) compensate

Hyponyms

• (to give money) bribe, disburse, fund, pay off, pay out, pay up, reimburse

Noun

1. Money given in return for work; salary or wages.Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.

Derived terms

Adjective

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

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

Verb

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.

Anagrams

• APY
• pya
• yap, Yap