英和和英

動詞

pay off (third-person singular simple present pays off, present participle paying off, simple past and past participle paid off)

1. (transitive, informal) To bribe, especially to deter oversight.

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

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

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

2. (intransitive) To 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.

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

     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.

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

     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.

3. (transitive) To pay back; to repay.

   Synonym: extinguish

   He paid off the loan three months early.

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

     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.

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

   Coordinate term: pay down

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

5. (transitive) To pay and discharge (an employee).
   • 1959, Albert Lansing, Endurance, page 25:

     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.

6. (nautical) To fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.

派生語

語源

Deverbal from pay off.

発音

• IPA: /ˈpeɪ.ɒf/, American: IPA: /ˈpeɪ.ɔːf/

名詞

pay-off (plural pay-offs)

1. A payment in full; the state of having been paid in full.

   At the current monthly payment level, it'll take 32 more months to reach pay-off.

2. A reward.

   What's the pay-off for putting up with her nonsense for ages on end?

3. A return on investment.

   How soon could we realistically expect any pay-off from loading up on shares of that company?

4. (informal) A bribe.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bribe

   The prison break never could have succeeded if it hadn't been for multiple pay-offs to various corrupt officers.

   • 1981 September, “Sex and Vice”, in Songs of the Gay Liberation Quire:

     Darlinghurst cops will get you/Clean and bright/Rich and white/See where pay-offs will get you

5. (colloquial, especially fiction) A resolution or justification of an event that has already occurred.

   Where's the pay-off for that whole segment of the plot?

   • 2013, Heide Goody, Iain Grant, How to Write a Collaborative Novel‎, Pigeon Park Press, →ISBN:

     If there is a significant or surprising event in the story, it must be foreshadowed earlier on. When the event that was foreshadowed occurs, that's the payoff.

   • 2026 January 24, Richard Waters, “A displaced life”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8:

     In a surprising pay-off, [Michael] Moritz says he has applied for citizenship of Germany, the country where so many family members were murdered.

6. (baseball) Ellipsis of payoff pitch.

   The bases are loaded, so he'd better make the pay-off count.

派生語

関連する語

発音

名詞

payoff (plural payoffs)

1. Alternative form of pay-off