payroll

[pey-rohl]

noun

1. a list of employees to be paid, pay, with the amount due to each.

2. the sum total of these amounts.

3. the actual money on hand for distribution.

   The bandits got away with the payroll.

4. the total number of people employed by a business firm or organization.

verb (used with object)

1. to fund or subsidize.

   to be payrolled by the State Department.

payroll

/ ˈpeɪˌrəʊl /

noun

1. a list of employees, specifying the salary or wage of each

2. 1. the total of these amounts or the actual money equivalent

   2. ( as modifier )

      a payroll tax

Word History and Origins

Origin of payroll¹

First recorded in 1765–75; pay ¹ + roll

Example Sentences

I’d argue the Brewers should be America’s team, the poster boys for how a team with smart and stable management can compete with a team with an unlimited payroll.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In all, she saved about $4,000 extra from the side gigs by the time she came off the government payroll at the end of September.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

They have claimed three consecutive division crowns over the rival Cubs despite spending nearly $260 million less on payroll over that span.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Brewers’ $143-million payroll this year was less than 20 other teams in Major League Baseball — including the historically bad Colorado Rockies — and almost one-third the size of the Dodgers.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

For decades, U.S. monthly nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate and average hourly earnings have been the Fed’s main measures of labor-market slack, wage pressure and the risk of inflation.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

• amount 
• budget 
• charge 
• consumption 
• debt 
• expenditure 
• insurance 
• investment 
• liability 
• loan 
• loss 
• mortgage 
• obligation 
• outlay 
• price 
• price tag 
• rate 
• risk 
• spending www.thesaurus.com
• sum