pay
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: pā, IPA(key): /peɪ/, [pʰeɪ]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪ
Etymology 1
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”)).
Verb
pay (third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle paid or (archaic) payed)
- (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.
- (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.
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Lvcrece (First Quarto), London: Printed by Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], OCLC 236076664:
- 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.
- (transitive) To be profitable for.
- It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
- (transitive) To give (something else than money).
- to pay attention
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- not paying me a welcome
- 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:
- 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.
- (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.
- crime doesn’t pay
- it will pay to wait
- (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.
- He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.
- (intransitive) To suffer consequences.
- He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
Hypernyms
- (to give money): compensate
Hyponyms
Related terms
Translations
|
|
|
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Noun
pay (countable and uncountable, plural pays)
- 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)
- Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.
- pay toilet
- 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)
Translations
|
Further reading
- pay in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- pay in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- pay at OneLook Dictionary Search
Azerbaijani
Other scripts | |
---|---|
Cyrillic | пај |
Roman | pay |
Perso-Arabic | پای |
Declension
nominative | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | payım | paylarım |
sənin (“your”) | payın | payların |
onun (“his/her/its”) | payı | payları |
bizim (“our”) | payımız | paylarımız |
sizin (“your”) | payınız | paylarınız |
onların (“their”) | payı or payları | payları |
accusative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | payımı | paylarımı |
sənin (“your”) | payını | paylarını |
onun (“his/her/its”) | payını | paylarını |
bizim (“our”) | payımızı | paylarımızı |
sizin (“your”) | payınızı | paylarınızı |
onların (“their”) | payını or paylarını | paylarını |
dative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | payıma | paylarıma |
sənin (“your”) | payına | paylarına |
onun (“his/her/its”) | payına | paylarına |
bizim (“our”) | payımıza | paylarımıza |
sizin (“your”) | payınıza | paylarınıza |
onların (“their”) | payına or paylarına | paylarına |
locative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | payımda | paylarımda |
sənin (“your”) | payında | paylarında |
onun (“his/her/its”) | payında | paylarında |
bizim (“our”) | payımızda | paylarımızda |
sizin (“your”) | payınızda | paylarınızda |
onların (“their”) | payında or paylarında | paylarında |
ablative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | payımdan | paylarımdan |
sənin (“your”) | payından | paylarından |
onun (“his/her/its”) | payından | paylarından |
bizim (“our”) | payımızdan | paylarımızdan |
sizin (“your”) | payınızdan | paylarınızdan |
onların (“their”) | payından or paylarından | paylarından |
genitive | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | payımın | paylarımın |
sənin (“your”) | payının | paylarının |
onun (“his/her/its”) | payının | paylarının |
bizim (“our”) | payımızın | paylarımızın |
sizin (“your”) | payınızın | paylarınızın |
onların (“their”) | payının or paylarının | paylarının |
Cebuano
Etymology
From English pi, Ancient Greek πεῖ (peî).
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: pay
Noun
pay
- the name of the sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek
- (mathematics) an irrational and transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its diameter; approximately 3.14159265358979323846264338327950; usually written π
Kalasha
Limos Kalinga
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
- (hypocoristic, usually childish) papa, dad, father
- 1525-1526, Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional, João de Gaia, B 1433: Vosso pai na rua (facsimile)
- Vosso pay na Rua / anta porta sua
- Your dad [is] on the street / before his door
- Vosso pay na Rua / anta porta sua
- 1525-1526, Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional, João de Gaia, B 1433: Vosso pai na rua (facsimile)
Synonyms
Portuguese
Noun
pay m (plural pays)
- Obsolete spelling of pai
- 1545, Garcia de Resende, Liuro das obras de Garcia de Reſẽnde que trata da vida […] do christianiſſimo; muito alto ⁊ muyto poderoſo principe el Rey dõ João o ſegundo deſte nome, page 1:
- De ſeu pay ⁊ ſua mãy ⁊ ſeu nacimento.
- About his father and his mother and his birth.
- De ſeu pay ⁊ ſua mãy ⁊ ſeu nacimento.
- 1545, Garcia de Resende, Liuro das obras de Garcia de Reſẽnde que trata da vida […] do christianiſſimo; muito alto ⁊ muyto poderoſo principe el Rey dõ João o ſegundo deſte nome, page 1:
Quechua
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /paj/
- Rhymes: -aj
Turkish
Etymology
From Proto-Turkic.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [paj]
- Hyphenation: pay
Declension
Inflection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | pay | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | payı | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominative | pay | paylar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | payı | payları | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dative | paya | paylara | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locative | payda | paylarda | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ablative | paydan | paylardan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genitive | payın | payların | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|