pay off

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

1. informaltransitiveTo bribe, especially to deter oversight.

   I thought the guards would give us trouble, but apparently he had paid them off.

   1 more example

   I had to pay off the judge to get my license back.

   1979, Al Greenwood, Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games

2. intransitiveTo become worthwhile; to produce a net benefit.

   Her years of Spanish classes finally paid off when she found herself in Mexico and realized she could communicate with people.

   2 more examples

   Wenger sent on Cesc Fabregas and Van Persie to try to finish Leeds off and with 14 minutes left the switch paid off as the Spaniard sent Bendtner away down the right and his wonderful curling cross was headed in by Van Persie at the far post.

   2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 27 Feb 2021

   The work has also paid off in terms of the numbers of passengers using York Street station, with both locals and students travelling to and from the nearby campus.

   2026 March 18, Chris Conway talks to Andy Comfort, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 34

3. transitiveTo pay back; to repay.

   He paid off the loan three months early.

   1 more example

   What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.

   2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 27

   Synonyms: extinguish

4. transitiveTo pay back (repay) the entirety of a loan, thereby effecting the release of a lien on (the thing that was financed).

   This contract requires you to pay off the car by 2025.

5. transitiveTo pay and discharge (an employee).

   The cook, who had been an indifferent worker on the trip over, came aboard drunk and was immediately paid off. Amazingly, twenty men applied to fill the vacancy.

   1959, Albert Lansing, Endurance, page 25

6. nauticalTo fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.