Pay

/peɪ/ · verb

Meaning

(ambitransitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services..

Definitions by Sense

1. (ambitransitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
2. (ambitransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
3. (transitive) To be profitable for.
4. (transitive) To yield as a benefit.
5. (transitive) To give (something else than money).
6. (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.
7. (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.
8. (intransitive) To suffer consequences.

Example Sentences

How much will the job pay?

he paid him to clean the place up

he paid her off the books and in kind where possible

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.

Admiral Hackett: You can pay a soldier to fire a gun. You can pay him to charge the enemy. But you can't pay him to believe.

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.

she offered to pay the bill

he has paid his debt to society

Synonyms for pay

Antonyms for pay

Related Words

Word Forms

• pays
• paying
• paid
• payed
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• pay
• payest
• paidest
• paidst
• payedst
• payeth
• -

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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