pay one's last respects

present singular third person pays one's last respects · participle present paying one's last respects · participle past paid one's last respects · past paid one's last respects

1. intransitiveTo visit the place where the remains of a dead person has been prepared for burial or cremation, either as a private act of remembrance or as a public display to others.

   1822 The Christian Journal, and Literary Register Mr. Thompson performed the service, and I preached a sermon to a crowded congregation of friends and mourners, who came together to pay their last respects to the remains of their friend and benefactor

   2 more examples

   The persons that attended funerals were the friends and relations of the deceased, who thought themselves obliged to pay their last respects to the dead.

   1827, John Robinson, Archæologia Græca

   And now to-day you've done your duty by her; paid your last respects to her memory, as I may say, and so you have nothing to reproach yourself with.

   1851, Charles Dickens, Household Words