pay one's dues

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pay one's dues (third-person singular simple present pays one's dues, present participle paying one's dues, simple past and past participle paid one's dues)

1. To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission.
   • 1871, Thomas Hardy, Desperate Remedies, ch. 8:

     The carrier to Casterbridge came up as Edward stepped into the road, and jumped down from the van to pay toll. . . . The carrier paid his dues.

2. (idiomatic) To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization.
   • 2005 August 7, Jeff Leeds, "A Money Scandal That's Rocking Hip-Hop, New York Times (retrieved 17 July 2013):

     [S]he spent some time paying her dues at entry-level jobs.

   • 2005 Nov. 6, Donald Morrison, "Still Enough Wrongs To Write," Time:

     He too championed the anti-apartheid cause, paid his dues, had his works banned.