pay home

verb

To strike to the quick; to retaliate.

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Meanings

verbpay home (third-person singular simple present pays home, present participle paying home, simple past and past participle paid home)

present singular third person pays home · participle present paying home · participle past paid home · past paid home

  1. To strike to the quick; to retaliate.

    Paulina. What (Soueraigne Sir) I did not well, I meant well: all my Seruices You haue pay'd home.

    c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

Origin

Compare German heimzahlen.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pay home. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pay%20home

MLA

“pay home.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pay%20home. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pay home,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pay%20home.

Source: pay home on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.