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Webster 1913 Edition

Pay

Pay

(pā)
,
Verb.
T.
[OF.
peier
, fr. L.
picare
to pitch,
pix
pitch: cf. OF.
peiz
pitch, F.
poix
. See
Pitch
a black substance.]
(Naut.)
To cover, as bottom of a vessel, a seam, a spar, etc., with tar or pitch, or waterproof composition of tallow, resin, etc.; to smear.

Pay

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Paid
(pād)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Paying
.]
[OE.
paien
, F.
payer
, fr. L.
pacare
to pacify, appease, fr.
pax
,
pacis
, peace. See
Peace
.]
1.
To satisfy, or content; specifically, to satisfy (another person) for service rendered, property delivered, etc.; to discharge one’s obligation to; to make due return to; to compensate; to remunerate; to recompense; to requite;
as, to
pay
workmen or servants
.
May no penny ale them
pay
[i. e., satisfy].
P. Plowman.
[She]
pays
me with disdain.
Dryden.
2.
Hence, figuratively: To compensate justly; to requite according to merit; to reward; to punish; to retort or retaliate upon.
For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll
pay
you.
B. Jonson.
3.
To discharge, as a debt, demand, or obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required; to deliver the amount or value of to the person to whom it is owing; to discharge a debt by delivering (money owed).
“Pay me that thou owest.”
Matt. xviii. 28.
Have patience with me, and I will
pay
thee all.
Matt. xviii. 26.
If they
pay
this tax, they starve.
Tennyson.
4.
To discharge or fulfill, as a duy; to perform or render duty, as that which has been promised.
This day have I
paid
my vows.
Prov. vii. 14.
5.
To give or offer, without an implied obligation;
as, to
pay
attention; to
pay
a visit.
Not
paying
me a welcome.
Shakespeare
To pay off
.
(a)
To make compensation to and discharge;
as,
to pay off
the crew of a ship
.
(b)
To allow (a thread, cord, etc.) to run off; to unwind.
(c)
to bribe.
–
To pay one's duty
,
to render homage, as to a sovereign or other superior.
–
To pay out
(Naut.)
,
to pass out; hence, to slacken; to allow to run out;
as,
to pay out
more cable.
See under
Cable
.
–
To pay the piper
,
to bear the cost, expense, or trouble.
[Colloq.]

Pay

(pā)
,
Verb.
I.
To give a recompense; to make payment, requital, or satisfaction; to discharge a debt.
The wicked borroweth, and
payeth
not again.
Ps. xxxvii. 21.
2.
Hence, to make or secure suitable return for expense or trouble; to be remunerative or profitable; to be worth the effort or pains required;
as, it will
pay
to ride; it will
pay
to wait; politeness always
pays
.
To pay for
.
(a)
To make amends for; to atone for;
as, men often
pay for
their mistakes with loss of property or reputation, sometimes with life
.
(b)
To give an equivalent for; to bear the expense of; to be mulcted on account of.

'T was I
paid for
your sleeps; I watched your wakings.
Beau. & Fl.
–
To pay off
.
[Etymol. uncertain.]
(a)
(Naut.)
To fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.
(b)
to repay (a debt).
–
To pay on
.
[Etymol. uncertain.]
To beat with vigor; to redouble blows.
[Colloq.]
–
To pay round
[Etymol. uncertain.]
(Naut.)
To turn the ship's head.

Pay

,
Noun.
1.
Satisfaction; content.
Chaucer.
2.
An equivalent or return for money due, goods purchased, or services performed; salary or wages for work or service; compensation; recompense; payment; hire;
as, the
pay
of a clerk; the
pay
of a soldier.
Where only merit constant
pay
receives.
Pope.
There is neither
pay
nor plunder to be got.
L'Estrange.

Webster 1828 Edition

Pay

PAY

,
Verb.
T.
pret. and pp. paid.
1.
To discharge a debt; to deliver to a creditor the value of the debt, either in money or goods, to his acceptance or satisfaction, by which the obligation of the debtor is discharged.
2.
To discharge a duty created by promise or by custom or by the moral law; as, to pay a debt of honor or of kindness.
You have paid down
More penitence,than done trespass.
3.
To fulfill; to perform what is promised; as, to pay one's vows.
4.
To render what is due to a superior, or demanded by civility or courtesy; as, to pay respect to a magistrate; to pay due honor to parents.
5.
To beat.
For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll pay you.
6.
To reward; to recompense; as, to pay for kindness with neglect.
To pay for, to make amends; to atone by suffering. Men often pay for their mistakes with loss of property or reputation, sometimes with life.
1.
To give an equivalent for any thing purchased.
To pay,or pay over, in seamen's language, to daub or besmear the surface of any body, to preserve it from injury by water or weather.
To pay the bottom of a vessel, to cover it with a composition of tallow, sulphur, rosin, &c.; to bream.
To pay a mast or yard, to besmear it with tar, turpentine, rosin, tallow or varnish.
pay a seam, to pour melted pitch along it, so as to defend the oakum.
To pay off; to make compensation to and discharge; as, to pay off the crew of a ship.
To pay out, to slacken, extend or cause to run out; as, to pay out more cable.

PAY

,
Verb.
I.
To pay off,in seamen's language, is to fall to leeward, as the head of a ship.
To pay on, to beat with vigor; to redouble blows. [Colloquial.]

PAY

,
Noun.
Compensation; recompense; an equivalent given for money due, goods purchased or services performed; salary or wages for services; hire. The merchant receives pay for goods sold; the soldier receives pay for his services,but the soldiers of the American revolution never received full pay.
1.
Compensation; reward.
Here only merit constant pay receives--

Definition 2024

pay

pay

See also: páy

English

Verb

pay ‎(third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle paid or (archaic) 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
    • Bible, Psalms xxxvii. 21
      The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.
    • 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
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      not paying me a welcome
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall, The Squire's Daughter, chapterI:
      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.‎
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

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
Translations

Adjective

pay ‎(not comparable)

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

Etymology 2

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

Verb

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

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: pass · doing · note · #548: pay · red · unto · receive

Anagrams

Azeri

Other scripts
Cyrillic пај
Roman pay
Perso-Arabic پای

Noun

pay ‎(definite accusative payı, plural paylar)

  1. share
  2. portion

Declension

Kalasha

Noun

pay

  1. A goat

Kurdish

Noun

pay ?

  1. share

Old Portuguese

Etymology

From padre, from Latin patrem, accusative singular of pater ‎(“father”), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpaj/

Noun

pay m

  1. (hypocoristic, usually childish) papa, dad, father

Synonyms

Coordinate terms

Descendants

  • Galician: pai
  • Portuguese: pai
    • Annobonese: pe
    • Indo-Portuguese: pai

Portuguese

Noun

pay m (plural pays)

  1. Obsolete spelling of pai

Quechua

Pronoun

pay

  1. he, she, it

See also

Turkish

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [paj]
  • Hyphenation: pay

Noun

pay ‎(definite accusative payı, plural paylar)

  1. portion
  2. (arithmetic) numerator

Synonyms

Antonyms

Declension

Etymology

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”)).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: pā, IPA(key): /peɪ/
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

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