pay

verb

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

   “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.”

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”

   “The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.”

   “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.”

   “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 yield as a benefit.

   “to pay dividends or interest”

5. (transitive)To give (something else than money).

   “to pay attention”

   “not paying me a welcome”

   “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.”

6. (intransitive)To be profitable or worth the effort.

   “crime doesn’t pay”

   “it will pay to wait”

7. (intransitive)To discharge an obligation or debt.

   “He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.”

8. (intransitive)To suffer consequences.

   “He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.”

9. (transitive)To admit that a joke, punchline, etc., was funny.

   “Sutho took a pull at his Johnny Walker and Coke and laughed that trademark laugh of his and said: `Okay. I'll pay that all right.'”

10. (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.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Money given in return for work; salary or wages.

   “Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.”

   “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.”

2. (countable, rare)A paying job; a paying concern.

   “"You can if you like. I'll drop in each day to see how she gets on." "Oh, will you? That's a relief. All the same, I wouldn't say she was a very good pay, if you spend too much time on her." "Oh, bad pays make up half a doctor's job."”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.

   “pay toilet”

2. (not-comparable)Pertaining to or requiring payment.

   “pay television”

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A diminutive of the unisex given name Payton.
2. (countable, uncountable)A surname.