English
pay
see also: Pay
Pronunciation
  • (RP, America) enPR: pā, IPA: /peɪ/, [pʰeɪ]
Etymology 1

From Middle English payen, from Old French paiier, from Medieval Latin pācāre from Latin pācō.

Verb

pay (pays, present participle paying; simple past and past participle paid)

  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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  2. (ambitransitive) 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 ↗, Psalms 37:21 ↗:
      The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto)‎, London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  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 (date written), 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 ↗, [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 ↗, 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.
Conjugation
Conjugation of pay

infinitive (to) pay
present tense past tense
1st-person singular pay paid, payed†
2nd-person singular

 pay, payest†

 paid, paidest†, paidst†, payed†, payedst†
3rd-person singular

 pays, payeth†

 paid, payed†
plural

 pay

subjunctive

 pay

paid, payed†
imperative

 pay

—
participles

 paying

 paid, payed†

†Archaic or obsolete.

Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

pay

  1. Money given in return for work; salary or wages.
    Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
      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.
Translations Adjective

pay (not comparable)

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

From Old French peier, from Latin picare.

Verb

pay (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
Pay
Proper noun
  1. A unisex given name.
  2. Surname.


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary