Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

pay down

British  

verb

  1. (adverb) to pay (a sum of money) at the time of purchase as the first of a series of instalments

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

That helps them get good jobs, have high earnings and pay down their debt.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

Japan, though, has a bundle of foreign assets acquired over decades of overseas investment that it could call on to finance future spending and pay down debt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

If Elon Musk helped pay down the debt by sacrificing the entirety of his nearly $1 trillion net worth—itself a mind-boggling sum—it would barely make a dent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

And that’s money the billionaire can apply to pay down the debts of two troubled Delaware life insurers he owns that are under federal scrutiny.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

“That was stupid. We could have sold that computer to help pay down your debt.”

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training