pay out
Britishverb
-
to distribute (money); disburse
-
(tr) to release (a rope) gradually, hand over hand
-
(tr) to retaliate against
noun
-
Distribute money, disburse, as in He paid out the full amount . [Mid-1800s]
-
Let out a rope by slackening, as in She paid out the rope until it was long enough to tie the canoe onto the car . This nautical expression dates from the late 1700s.
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.
But the program can only pay out what it collects, which means an automatic benefit cut on the day the reserves are exhausted.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 10, 2026
Those typically run between 10 and 30 years and pay out only if the policy holder dies during that period.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
"The average dividend we'll pay out to an individual saver will be around £300 a year."
From BBC • May 25, 2026
The idea behind dividend investing is that the need to pay out each and every year instills financial discipline, preventing expensive flights of fancy by the C-suite.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026
“Young friends, whose string-and-tin-can phone extended from island to island, had to pay out more and more string, as if letting kites go higher and higher. “
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
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.
