pay for
Britishverb
-
to make payment (of) for
-
(intr) to suffer or be punished, as for a mistake, wrong decision, etc
in his old age he paid for the laxity of his youth
-
Cover the expenses of, defray the cost of, as in I'll pay for your movie ticket , or This truck will pay for itself within a year . [Mid-1300s]
-
Atone for, suffer for, as in He may have looked like a good manager, but his successor will end up paying for his mistakes . [Late 1600s]
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.
So Moore didn’t pay for Loomer’s trip to Ukraine.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Her compensation as stated in the latest available tax filings outstrips the pay for leaders of much larger nonprofits in the homelessness arena.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
We just don’t want to spend $10 for a beer to hang out in a bar and then pay for an Uber to get home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Government Accountability Office recently recommended that the payment method for hospice be revamped to pay for the number of patient visits rather than total days a patient spends in hospice.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
But she did give in and use her tribal citizenship twice: Once to help pay for grad school.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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.
