pay a compliment

Idioms  

1. Express praise or commendation to someone, as in Meredith wanted to pay Christopher a compliment so she told him she liked his new haircut. This expression uses pay in the sense of “give something that is due.” [c. 1700]

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Example Sentences

“Your friend’s speech was very...interesting,” she said, trying to pay a compliment but struggling to do so.

From Literature

“You mathematician! I wish you could at least pay a compliment without arithmetic! Eight from nineteen is eleven. Twice as pretty every year...Goodness, I’m twenty-two times as pretty!”

From Literature

“We have traveled so much and had to adapt so much, the bio-rhythms and everything else. It was really difficult and I have to pay a compliment to my team for how they have reacted. No one has been moaning.”

From Seattle Times

I considered interrupting her routine to pay a compliment.

From Slate

Echoed again and again is the advice to "pay a compliment."

From Washington Post