pay back
Britishverb
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to retaliate against
to pay someone back for an insult
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to give or do (something equivalent) in return for a favour, insult, etc
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to repay (a loan)
noun
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the return on an investment
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Also called: payback period. the time taken for a project to cover its outlay
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something done in order to gain revenge
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( as modifier )
payback killings
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Repay a debt or a loan, as in I'll pay you back next month .
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Also, pay back in someone's own coin . Revenge oneself, repay in kind, as in He thought he could get away with copying my plans, but I'll pay him back in his own coin . This expression refers to repaying a debt in exactly the same currency in which the money had been lent. [c. 1600]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Investors scrambled to cash out investments after a fund manager popular among everyday investors said it lacked the money to pay back clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Holdo was ordered to pay back the more than $1.7 million that prosecutors say he took, including in cases stemming from the charges that were dismissed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
He and a co-author used “unpleasant monetarist arithmetic” to show that if people don’t believe their government will eventually raise enough taxes to pay back debt, the central bank can be powerless to stop inflation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Legal scholars have debated whether surrogates should pay legal damages if they fail to honor a contractual abortion provision, surrender payments remaining on the contract, or even pay back money they already received.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
When we got home, after we got paid again and ate eggs and tortillas, I counted up our money and we had more than enough to pay back the Lighthouse.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
