# pay

Pronunciation: say "PAY" /peɪ/

## Verb

1. To give money or something else of value in exchange for goods, services, or work, or to settle a bill, debt, or other amount owed.
   - Simple: To give money for things you buy, for work done for you, or for money you owe.
   - _Customers can pay the vendor with cash or a card._
   - _She paid the plumber as soon as the leak was fixed._
3. To give or render something other than money, such as attention, a compliment, or a visit.
   - Simple: To give something that is not money, such as attention or a visit.
   - _We should pay our respects to the family this weekend._
   - _He paid her a compliment that made her whole day._
5. To suffer punishment or unpleasant consequences as a result of one's actions.
   - Simple: To be punished or face something bad because of what you did.
   - _The villain swore his enemies would pay for ruining the plan._
   - _She paid dearly for ignoring the storm warnings._
6. To be profitable or advantageous, or to be worth the time and effort involved, either in general or for a particular person or organization.
   - Simple: To bring a profit or a good result. To be worth doing.
   - _Cutting corners rarely pays in the construction business._
   - _Being patient with difficult customers tends to pay over time._
8. To admit that a joke, punchline, or similar quip was funny. *(colloquial, Australia, New Zealand)*
   - Simple: To admit that a joke was funny, even if you did not want to laugh.
   - _When his brother joked about his haircut, he grinned and said, "Fair enough, I'll pay that."_
   - _He groaned at first, then admitted, "Fine, I'll pay that one. It was clever."_

## Noun

2. Earnings received for work done, in the form of wages or a salary.
   - Simple: The money you get for doing your job.
   - _The union negotiated higher pay for night-shift workers._
   - _Many teachers say their pay has not kept up with rising costs._

## Adjective

4. Requiring payment to use or access, as opposed to being free of charge, as with a service, channel, or a machine operated by inserting coins.
   - Simple: Something you must pay money to use, not free, like a pay phone or pay TV channel.
   - _The playoff games moved to a pay channel this season._
   - _The city converted the riverfront lot to pay parking last spring._

## Noun

7. A person or client considered as someone who pays what is owed, judged by how reliably they do it, as in a good pay or a bad pay. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A person judged by how well they pay their bills, as in a good pay or a bad pay.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To cover the bottom of a vessel, a seam, or a spar with tar, pitch, or a waterproof mixture of tallow and resin; to smear.

## Origin

Latin pācāre ("to pacify") took on the meaning "to settle, satisfy" in Medieval Latin, then passed into Old French as paiier ("pay") and into Middle English as payen. In this meaning it pushed out the native Old English ġieldan ("to pay"), the ancestor of modern yield.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pay (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).