pay off
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Phrasal Verb:
- To settle a debt in full: To completely repay money that is owed, such as a loan or a mortgage.
- To yield a positive result or profit: To produce a successful or beneficial outcome, especially after effort, investment, or risk.
- To bribe someone: To give someone money or a favor, often secretly, to influence their actions or decisions.
- To get revenge on someone: To retaliate against someone or to settle a score (this usage is informal and less common).
Usage and Examples
Settling a debt:
- It took them fifteen years to pay off their mortgage.
- She used her bonus to pay off her credit card balance.
Yielding a positive result:
- All her hard work studying paid off when she passed the exam.
- The risky investment finally paid off with huge returns.
Bribing someone:
- The mobster tried to pay off the witness to change his testimony.
- Corrupt officials were paid off to ignore the violations.
Getting revenge (informal):
- He vowed to pay off the person who betrayed him.
Advanced Usage and Nuances
- Intransitive vs. Transitive Use: When meaning "to yield a result," it is often intransitive (no direct object: ). When meaning "to settle a debt" or "to bribe," it is transitive and requires an object (, ).
- Figurative Use: The "yield a result" meaning is frequently used figuratively for non-financial gains, such as effort, patience, or strategy leading to success.
- Separability: This phrasal verb is separable. The object (e.g., , ) can often come between "pay" and "off."
- He paid his debts off.
- They paid the inspector off.
Variants and Related Words
Payoff (noun): The result or benefit of an action; a bribe; the final payment.
- The payoff for years of research was a groundbreaking discovery.
- He was accused of accepting a payoff.
Paid-off (adjective): Describes something that has been fully repaid.
- They now live in a paid-off house.
Synonyms
- Settle: To pay what is owed (e.g., ).
- Succeed: To achieve a desired aim or result.
- Bribe: To persuade someone to act in one's favor by a gift of money or other inducement.
- Retaliate: To make an attack in return for a similar attack.
Related Phrasal Verbs
Pay back: To return money that was borrowed; to retaliate.
- I'll pay you back next week. (return money)
- He wanted to pay her back for the insult. (retaliate)
Pay out: To disburse or spend a large sum of money.
- The insurance company paid out thousands for the claim.
Idioms and Common Phrases
It pays off: Used to indicate that an effort or investment is worthwhile.
- Being honest always pays off in the long run.
To pay someone off: Specifically emphasizes the act of bribing a person.
- The rumor was that the journalist was paid off to kill the story.
Verb
- take vengeance on or get even
- We'll get them!
- That'll fix him good!
- This time I got him
- pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor
- do or give something to somebody in return
- Does she pay you for the work you are doing?
- pay off (loans or promissory notes)
- eliminate by paying off (debts)
- yield a profit or result
- His efforts finally paid off