foot the bill

1. Pay the bill, settle the accounts, as in The bride's father was resigned to footing the bill for the wedding. This expression uses foot in the sense of “add up and put the total at the foot, or bottom, of an account.” [Colloquial; early 1800s]

Example Sentences

The bloc’s current programs to fund Ukraine’s military, however, are far too small in scale to foot the bill for his plans.

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There are questions around the drug, including whether insurers will foot the bill.

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Being sued as an individual means defendants must pay damages on their own, without the government helping to foot the bill – a potentially very expensive outcome.

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Data centers need a lot of electricity to run, and nearby residents sometimes foot the bill for some of the infrastructure.

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So much so that even the most valuable companies in the world can’t foot the bill just by dipping into their cash reserves anymore.

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