pay
/peɪ/ verb A1- To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services. · pay cash or pay in cash, pay by credit/debit card· pay in dollars/euros, etc.
- To deposit into an account. · I pay a portion of each paycheck into a savings account.
- To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required. · to pay compensation, to pay a fine· She offered to pay the bill.
- To be profitable; to be worth it. · It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.· Crime doesn’t pay.
- To cover, as a cost. · Those investments paid for her college education.
- To yield as a benefit. · to pay dividends; to pay interest· You will get paid from this investment yearly.
- To give (something else than money). · to pay attention, to pay tribute, to pay a visit
- To suffer consequences, especially justly. · He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
Plural pay · He/she/it pays · Past paid · Past participle paid · -ing form paying
Verb forms
- Base form
- pay
- He/she/it
- pays
- Past
- paid
- Past participle
- paid
- -ing form
- paying
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
- pay back To pay (a debt or the lender) so as to provide the entire...
- pay down To partially repay (a loan or, metonymically, the thing f...
- pay forward To propagate goodwill by helping another person in turn, ...
- pay off To bribe, especially to deter oversight.
- pay out To distribute money; to disburse.
- pay up To pay in total a sum which is owed, especially when the ...
From the library
In this country everyone must pay for everything he gets.
Mercédès, however, paid no heed to this explanation of her lover’s arrest.
“No, sir; I have all my pay to take—nearly three months’ wages.”
At one place a man was selling green lemonade, and when the children bought it Dorothy could see that they paid for it with green pennies.
Other matches
Learn pay in real texts
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