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• the devil to pay
  the devil to pay

  Trouble to be faced as a result of one's actions: “When the principal hears of Bobby's pranks, there will be the devil to pay.”
• devil to pay, the
  devil to pay, the

  Serious trouble resulting from some action, as in There'll be the devil to pay if you let that dog out. This expression originally referred to trouble resulting from making a bargain with the devil, but later was broadened to apply to any sort of problem. A variant, the devil to pay and no pitch hot, first recorded in 1865, gave rise to the theory that the expression was originally nautical, since pay also means “to waterproof a seam by caulking it with pitch,” and no pitch hot meant it was a particularly difficult job, since cold pitch is hard to use. However, the original expression is much older and is the one that survives. [c. 1400]

the devil to pay

Cultural  

1. Trouble to be faced as a result of one's actions: “When the principal hears of Bobby's pranks, there will be the devil to pay.”

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devil to pay, the Idioms  

1. Serious trouble resulting from some action, as in There'll be the devil to pay if you let that dog out. This expression originally referred to trouble resulting from making a bargain with the devil, but later was broadened to apply to any sort of problem. A variant, the devil to pay and no pitch hot, first recorded in 1865, gave rise to the theory that the expression was originally nautical, since pay also means “to waterproof a seam by caulking it with pitch,” and no pitch hot meant it was a particularly difficult job, since cold pitch is hard to use. However, the original expression is much older and is the one that survives. [c. 1400]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

the devil to pay

But when a wealthy landowner, Dr. George Parkman, went missing, there was the devil to pay.

From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2018

"There is the devil to pay in Denmark," wrote Horace Walpole.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 6, 2012

When two correct visitors from the outside world arrived, the situation came to a head, there was the devil to pay.

From Time Magazine Archive

The San Francisco pressagent might well have added that when a fair is over there is frequently the devil to pay.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is only in the unaccountable minority, the “cases,” that the line is crossed, and then there is the devil to pay on both sides, but most of all for the meningococci.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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