PAY FOR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pay for

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/peɪ fɔr/ Listen

verb

Pay v. i. (past & past part. paid; pres. part. paying)

To give a recompense; to make payment, requital, or satisfaction; to discharge a debt. "The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again."

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."

To pay off.

(a)

(Naut.) To fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.

(b)

to repay (a debt).

To pay on. To beat with vigor; to redouble blows. (Colloq.)

To pay round (Naut.) To turn the ship's head.

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Etymology of 'Pay for'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pay for" Quotes from Famous Books

... found the hotel proprietor glad to see them, and willing to set any kind of a spread that they were able to pay for. Trade was not yet brisk, and Jason Sparr said he would do his best to serve them. He was a smooth, oily man, and a fellow who wanted all ...

— Dave Porter and the Runaways - Last Days at Oak Hall • Edward Stratemeyer

... Pickwick pay for peeping,' said Fogg, with considerable native humour, as he unfolded his papers. 'The amount of the taxed costs is one hundred and thirty-three, ...

— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens

... he. 'That shows the others where they get off.' Grant, I'm here with the papers and the right to act." He advanced close to the selectman, waggling admonitory forefinger. "I've been excusing your feelings. I don't blame you! This is tough. It's the penalty you pay for living in such a town. But I don't propose to stand for any more of that gunplay. ...

— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... Union control, the Trades Unions are certainly supreme in all those matters with which they have chiefly concerned themselves, since they dominate the Commissariat of Labor, are very largely represented on the Supreme Council of Public Economy, and fix the rates of pay for ...

— The Crisis in Russia - 1920 • Arthur Ransome

... is near when they will not be able to pay for them all in ready cash. We cannot, and we will not, tell them that they must surrender, merely because of present inability to pay for the weapons which ...

— State of the Union Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt • Franklin D. Roosevelt

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