Did you know?

Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word

pay

 - definition
Close

What are red words?

90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Close

Thesaurus

The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.

more
verb American English pronunciation: pay /peɪ/ 
Word Forms
Close
present tense
I/you/we/theypay
he/she/itpays
present participlepaying
past tensepaid
past participlepaid
 
  1. 1
    [intransitive/transitive] to give money in order to buy something
    pay for:

    Let me pay for dinner.

    pay someone for something:

    Can I pay you for this?

    pay by:

    Will you be paying by cash, check, or credit card?

    pay with:

    I’d like to pay with my credit card.

    pay in dollars/pounds etc.:

    Can I pay in dollars?

    pay (in) cash:

    There’s a reduction if you pay cash.

    pay the bill/check:

    Can I pay the bill, please?

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
    1. a.
      [intransitive/transitive] to give money to someone who does a job for you
      pay someone to do something:

      We had to pay them over $300 to fix it.

      pay someone for something:

      We still haven’t paid them for the repairs to the roof.

      pay to have/get something done:

      Now I’ll have to pay to get the car fixed.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
    2. b.
      [transitive] to give someone their salary

      Some of the workers haven’t been paid for weeks.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
    3. c.
      [intransitive/transitive] to give a company, institution, etc. money that you owe them

      We’ll probably pay more in tax this year.

      Did you pay the gas bill?

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
  2. 2
    [intransitive/transitive] if a job pays a particular amount of money, you get that amount for doing it

    She was in a job paying over $60,000 a year.

    My new job pays well.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
    1. a.
      [intransitive] if a business pays, it earns money

      We have a lot of hard work ahead if we’re going to make the business pay.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
  3. 3
    [intransitive/transitive] to have a good result
    crime doesn’t pay:

    The message you get from the movie is simple: crime doesn’t pay.

    it pays to do something:

    It pays to cover the pool to keep out falling leaves.

    it pays someone to do something:

    It would pay you to get it properly checked.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay
  4. 4
    [intransitive] to suffer because of something that you have done

    It was an outrage, and somebody was going to pay.

    pay for:

    They had made him look like a fool and now they were going to pay for it.

    pay dearly for something (=suffer a lot because of something):

    We may pay dearly for our arrogance.

    make someone pay (for something):

    She had ruined his life and now he was going to make her pay.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  payThesaurus entry for this meaning of pay

phrases

See also

This is the American English definition of pay. View British English definition of pay.

Change your default dictionary and thesaurus to British English.

 

vocal fry

a speech habit in which a speaker lowers their voice at the end of a sentence

BuzzWord Article

Word of the Day Word of the Day

watchword

a word or phrase that expresses someone’s attitude or intention

Open Dictionary

conflict mineral

a mineral which is mined in a place where there is armed conflict, and sold to help pay for weapons

add a word

Blog

A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.

global English and language change from our blog