paid

American  

[peyd] / peɪd /

verb

1. a simple past tense and past participle of pay.

---

paid British  

/ peɪd /

verb

1. the past tense and past participle of pay 1

2. to end or destroy

   breaking his leg put paid to his hopes of running in the Olympics

---

paid Idioms  

1. see under pay.

---

Other Word Forms

• nonpaid adjective
• self-paid adjective
• unpaid adjective
• well-paid adjective

Explanation

Something that's paid is done in exchange for money, or happens while you're receiving pay. For example, your job might offer paid vacation, when you get your usual pay but don't have to work. Paid work is anything you do for pay, whether it's babysitting your cousin for ten dollars, or a job at a law firm that provides a weekly paycheck. When people are described as paid, it clarifies the fact that they're working for money — like a paid FBI informant, or a paid companion for an elderly man. Paid comes from the verb pay, which meant "pacify or please" long before it came to mean "give what is due."

Example Sentences

More recently, Pfizer paid $43 billion for cancer-drug biotech Seagen in 2023.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

How would the US determine who paid Iran a toll?

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

Russia, whose battlefield advances have slowed since last year, has paid a high price in manpower for relatively small territorial gains.

From Barron's • Apr. 12, 2026

From a straight stock-price perspective, once the shine started to fade on Beyond Meat, it was shareholders that paid the price for the fundamental problems.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 12, 2026

But neither sister paid attention to Elisha’s guidance on drinking either.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

Related Words

• compensated
• salaried