pay out
Britishverb
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to distribute (money); disburse
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(tr) to release (a rope) gradually, hand over hand
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(tr) to retaliate against
noun
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Distribute money, disburse, as in He paid out the full amount . [Mid-1800s]
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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.
He was suspended from “Today” in October 2016 and did not return to the program as the network chose to pay out his contract.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Banks stand to earn less on some bread-and-butter activities, such as making longer-term loans to customers, relative to the interest they pay out to clients on short-term deposits.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
She also occasionally tells patients to pay out of pocket for a second doctor to provide a fuller opinion than the original doctor’s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Analyst Nathan Lead expects DBI to pay out a dividend of 28.6 Australian cents per share in FY27, in quarterly installments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 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.
