英语词汇pay-的发音释义、词根词缀、结构分析、同源词、词频及词根记忆法-英语词根词缀词典

pay-in combination. [pay n., or, in some cases, the stem of pay v.¹]1. In ns. denoting persons or things connected with the payment of money, esp. as wages. a. Charged with the payment of workmen, employees, or subordinates; as pay-agent, pay-clerk, pay-commander, pay-corps, pay-director, pay-inspector, pay-sergeant; paymaster, paymistress. b. Indicating, or containing a statement of amounts to be paid or the persons to whom they are to be paid; as pay-bill, pay-book, pay code, pay-list, pay-scale, pay-sheet, pay-ticket; containing pay or wages, as pay-check, pay-cheque, pay-envelope, pay packet. c. At, from, or on which payment is made, esp. of wages to employees; as pay-box (esp. = box office 1), pay-desk, pay-car, pay-gate, pay-office, pay-place, pay-room, pay-shed, pay-table, pay-train, pay-wicket, pay-window; pay-day, pay-night, pay-week. d. For which payment is charged (opp. to free); as pay-bed, pay-bridge, pay-hospital, pay-meal, pay-school, pay-toilet, pay ward; that pays for something (e.g. education) instead of getting it free; as pay-boarder, pay-boy.1879E. J. Castle Law Rating 98 Payments were made by the *pay-agent of the troop.1895Brit. Med. Jrnl. 2 Mar. 501/2 In opening..certain *pay beds the Committee of Management had simply felt that they were carrying out what they were bound to do under the constitution of the hospital.1928Daily Express 19 July 9/4 The special committee appointed..to consider the needs of the professional and middle classes recommend that additional ‘pay-beds’ should be provided for them by the hospitals.1934Lancet 23 June 1371/2 To establish pay-beds for patients of moderate means.1969‘W. Haggard’ Doubtful Disciple v. 52 In his pay-bed in the hospital Jacky D was depressed.1974Times 6 Nov. 2/8 The Owen working party..is discussing the new consultant contract and the pay-bed issue.1976H. Wilson Governance of Britain iv. 86 Fresh concern arose about government legislation and action in connection with pay-beds and private practice, in October and December 1975.1828Webster, *Pay-bill, a bill of money to be paid to the soldiers of a company.1897Rep. Comm. Welsh Education, Howell schools... Amongst the *pay boarders,..numbering in all thirty, there were six Nonconformists.1669W. Penn in St. Papers, Dom. 286, I send the muster and *pay books for the ‘Harp’.1896Idler Mar. 251/2 We checked my figures in the pay-book with the money.1851Dickens in Househ. Words 30 Aug. 531/2 He darts upon my luggage..pays certain francs for it, to a certain functionary behind a Pigeon Hole, like a *pay-box at a Theatre.1889J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat xix. 313 We attracted a good deal of attention at the Alhambra. On our presenting ourselves at the pay-box we..were informed that we were half-an-hour behind our time.1952V. Gollancz My Dear Timothy 20 The practice was to open this door, and let people up the long staircase to a point a little short of the pay-box.1975N. Luard Travelling Horseman iii. 71 The butler who'd..contact[ed] them from a street pay⁓box.1904‘O. Henry’ in Everybody's Mag. Aug. 240/1 Joe Wheeler signs the voucher for his *pay-check.1964Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 24 Apr. (1970) 122 How sensible these girls are to be starting on a skill that they can exchange for a paycheck almost anywhere.1977Time 10 Oct. 56/2 Chicagoans tell of a local executive who has supposedly never spent a paycheck in 30 years but lives entirely off the expense account.1930J. Collier His Monkey Wife xvii. 243 You take your *pay cheque at the end of the week without making a lot of fuss about the size of it.1973J. Wainwright Touch of Malice 71 The inconvenience went with the rank and the pay-cheque.1771in J. Phillips Hist. Inland Navig. (1792) 334 That..the *pay-clerk..do attend on the canal..to receive the returns.. of the number of labourers..and to pay them..the amount of their several returns.1976Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 21 Nov., And that wouldn't come into line with the Government's *pay code which..limited everyone to {pstlg}6 a week.1890Cent. Dict., *Pay-corps, in the United States navy, the corps of pay⁓masters.1898A. Bennett Man from North vii. 50 Jenkins eagerly drew Richard's attention to the girl at the *pay-desk.1919W. Deeping Second Youth vii. 64 Nearly always she sat at the same table near the pay-desk.1932D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase xxx. 395 Bunter was four behind him in the queue at the pay-desk.1890Cent. Dict., *Pay-director, in the United States navy, an officer of the pay-corps, ranking with a captain.1909Sat. Even. Post 5 June 17/1 (heading), The *pay envelopes of the stars.1911E. Ferber Dawn O'Hara iv. 46 My bank account has always been an all too small pay envelope at the end of each week.1973E. Taylor Serpent under It (1974) xi. 172 Mr. Ramsay finally rrrememberrred that the rrrest of us like to eat, and left the pay envelopes.1892Daily News 25 Apr. 2/7 The Hampstead Home Hospital,..although a *pay hospital, has a free accident ward.1890Cent. Dict., *Pay-inspector, in the United States navy, an officer of the pay-corps, ranking with a commander.1892Labour Commission Gloss., *Pay-lines,..tickets..issued a day before pay day to each workman stating the particulars of his pay, thus allowing him time to make any complaints as to amounts, etc., before being paid.1757Act 31 Geo. II c. 10 Abstract §3 Every inferior Officer or Seaman..shall be paid by Proper *Pay Lists, all the Wages due to him.1900Westm. Gaz. 15 Mar. 5/2 Very few officers or non-commissioned officers could keep a pay list or a pay and mess sheet.1820C. Mathews Let. 25 July in A. Mathews Mem. Charles Mathews (1839) III. vii. 148 The common outcry was against Saturday for a second performance, as it is *pay-night, and the worst night in the week.1891T. Hardy Tess xlii, ‘This is pay-night’, she said.1970G. Greer Female Eunuch 288 They have taken the pay packet out of the old man's pocket when he has finally arrived home on pay-night.1707Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. iii. xi. 385 The Navy-Office, Excise-Office, *Pay-Office [etc.] are of lesser note.1941‘N. Blake’ Case of Abominable Snowman ix. 101 A stoppage of work and less money in the *pay-packet on Fridays.1973Times 1 Jan. 3/2 Miners' institute libraries..were financed by pennies from miners' pay packets.1976Norwich Mercury 19 Nov. 1/4 Many firms find that a hamper is much appreciated by the workforce rather than ‘{pstlg}10 in the pay packet’, particularly as payment is subject to tax but a hamper is not.1816Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 173 The plaintiff expected..to receive his money..at the usual *pay-place.1831Lincoln Herald 23 Sept. 4/4 An attempt was made to break into the *pay-room of the workhouse.1961Lancet 9 Sept. 595/1 Our results make it possible to establish a *pay-scale, based on production.1976F. Muir Frank Muir Bk. 95 Teaching..became a respectable profession..with its own union to keep an eye on pay scales.1856X. D. MacLeod Biogr. F. Wood 191 The cost to us in taxation is not one fifth the usual expense for an ordinary *pay-school education.1936M. Mitchell Gone with Wind v. lii. 905 There were no free schools. Few had money to send their children to pay schools.1830Scott Demonol. x. 365 Jarvis Matcham was *pay-sergeant in a regiment.1900Westm. Gaz. 14 Aug. 3/2, I have before me a *pay-sheet of a Trinidad cocoa estate for the month of May.1850T. McCrie Mem. Sir A. Agnew vi. (1852) 134 Saturday-night *pay-tables established in public-houses to tempt the tradesman.1915Kipling New Army 29 The men..saluted emphatically at the pay-table, and fell back with their emoluments.1965‘Lauchmonen’ Old Thom's Harvest xvi. 181 Every Saturday..the men were at the paytable in the ball-field.1977Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Mar. 334/5 His now receptive mind drifts back into the past where he is, once again, leader and paymaster of a racially mixed crew... The ghosts of the men again come forward to the paytable.1721Lond. Gaz. No. 5931/3 Several Blank Seamens *Pay-Tickets.1946E. Hodgins Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House ix. 132, I wouldn't come back here if you had a *pay toilet.1947Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) iii. 72 The scene has all the signs of a facetious culture, Publishing houses, pawnshops, and pay-toilets.1968Listener 7 Nov. 610/1 There's a song about not having a dime for a pay toilet, and another one about the sexual relevance of Kleenex.1976New Yorker 15 Nov. 66/2 There was a character named Exotica A La Carte, who lived on the proceeds of a string of pay toilets.1895Brit. Med. Jrnl. 2 Mar. 502/1 It is desirable that the system of *pay wards now in operation be so modified that the patients in those wards may..be attended in the hospital by outside practitioners of their own selection.1766W. Gordon Gen. Counting-ho. 364 The acceptation of bills..in the second or third *pay-week.1895Westm. Gaz. 11 June 5/1 The manager..was at the *pay-wicket.1934Archit. Rev. LXXV. 92/1 The first doorway has a glass window which serves as a *pay-window.1977A. C. H. Smith Jericho Gun i. 16 It's a winning ticket... If you present it at the Tote pay window, even you might get some money back.2. Mining. Containing precious metal or other mineral in sufficient quantity to be profitably worked; as pay-channel, pay-chimney, pay-chute, pay-dirt (also contemptuous, for ‘money’, and fig.), pay-dust, pay-gravel, pay-ground, pay-lead, pay-ore, pay-rock, pay-shoot, pay-streak, pay-vein, pay-zone.1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 107 The gold is..evenly distributed through the pay chimneys.1857Pay dirt [see dirt n. 3 c].1866Dublin Rev. Jan. 10 Even officers of men-of-war were seized by the gold mania, and ‘ran’ to soil their white hands in the precious ‘pay-dirt’.1872Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 87 An exception to the general rule of the ‘pay’ dirt lying nearest the bed-rock. In this claim the pay-lead is many feet above the bed-rock.1884Century Mag. Nov. 60/2 He lives..in a style that proves that he has lots of pay dirt somewhere.1930E. Rice Voy. to Purilia xvii. 249 As one elderly prospector expressed it: ‘Thar's pay dirt in them thar hills.’1935Motion Picture Nov. 46/2 Frances Langford, the cutie whose ‘pay dirt’ reaches $1,000 per week.1948A. Huxley Ape & Essence (1949) 132 We see Loola standing in a three-foot hole wearily digging... ‘When you hit the pay dirt..come and report to us.’1953Economist 24 Oct. 248 Senator McCarthy may have struck pay-dirt at last.1967Ibid. 26 Aug. 721/3 Senator Dirksen..applauds the President for permitting the bombers to attack targets within ten miles of the Chinese frontier: ‘We seem to be getting close to paydirt.’1972Lebende Sprachen XVII. 34/1 US pay dirt—BE/US workable ore-bearing soil.1973C. Callow Power from Sea ii. 60 The thickness of the ‘pay dirt’—that is the width of the sand in which the gas was contained.1977Rolling Stone 21 Apr. 88/3 Bowie hits celestial pay dirt on one of the pieces.a1872B. Harte Her Let. ix, O, why did papa strike pay gravel In drifting on Poverty Flat?1927Daily Tel. 25 Oct. 2/7 The results, taken in conjunction with the pay ground passed through the haulage, gives promise of..an important shoot.1880Ibid. 3 Dec., Towns which depend upon ‘bonanzas’ and lodes of pay ore.1862‘Mark Twain’ Let. 8 Feb. (1920) 51 We'll have a mill-site, water power, and pay-rock, all handy.1947W. A. Chalfant Gold, Guns, & Ghost Towns 141 Thompson and Ramsay prospected over the same ground..and struck some pay rock that was almost the pure stuff.1856Daily Even. Bulletin (San Francisco) 11 Oct. 1/1 These lucky miners worked one, two, and even three years, to reach the pay streak.1910R. W. Service Ballads of Cheechako 68 Late in the year he struck it rich, the real pay-streak at last.1965G. J. Williams Econ. Geol. N.Z. vii. 80/1 The gold is distributed over the schist bottom in more or less orientated paystreaks trending north-westerly.1977New Yorker 20 June 85/1 A pay streak appeared to be there, and what was needed now was a means of moving gravel in a major way.1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 327 The pay-vein is narrow, and the lode probably only a spur.1877Ibid. 40 Golden Gate mine..length pay-zone, 100 feet.1973C. Callow Power from Sea ii. 61 The yield was 3.6 million cubic feet a day and the ‘pay zone’ was 64 feet thick.1975Offshore Sept. 75/2 It encountered three pay zones between 8,468 ft and 9,595 ft, with about 130 ft of net oil pay and a smaller zone of about eight ft of gas pay.3. a. The verb-stem in combination with object; as pay-all, he who or that which pays all, or bears the whole charge; pay-rent a., serving, or furnishing money, to pay the rent; † pay-way a. (Sc.), ‘valedictory; given when one is leaving, or for the purpose of bearing one's expenses on the road’ (Jam.). Also, with advb., as pay-back, the fact or action of paying back; reward or return, spec. the net return in profits from an investment project equal to the initial capital outlay; also attrib.; also as adj., retaliatory.a1652Brome Damoiselle iv. i. Wks. 1873 I. 436 You were not wont To be a Boordsend-King; a *pay-all in a Tavern.1796Coleridge Watchman No. 1. 29 The sum of Five Thousand Pounds, to be paid on the first day of April next, at the office of John Bull, Esq. Pay-all and Fight-all to the several High contracting Powers.1959Wall St. Jrnl. (Eastern ed.) 31 Mar. 13/1 The *pay⁓back order affects only the Star-Bulletin and not the union.1965H. I. Ansoff Corporate Strategy ii. 14 Three common methods for evaluation are the payback period, the internal rate of discount, and the net present worth.1970M. Kelly Spinifex iii. 63 ‘I can remember him taking part in a big pay-back raid a few years later.’ ‘Pay-back?’ ‘Pidgen for vendetta―.’1971C. R. W. Wysock Wright in B. de Ferranti Living with Computer iii. 22 This necessary investment in good education is essential although the payback may only be in the long term.1972Accountant 28 Sept. 391/2 You simply cannot say that..discounted cash flow is superior to payback.1973Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 10 June 46/2 Such ‘payback’, or revenge killings, are common in the Highlands.1977Irish Times 8 June 10/7 It would, he said, depress cash flow and would lengthen the payback period for the mine's capital cost.1744–50W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. IV. i. 39 A *pay-rent crop of turnips.1764Mus. Rust. III. xxxii. 144 Horse-beans..will..yield a pay-rent crop.1823Galt R. Gilhaize II. xiii. 131 After partaking of Captain Hepburn's *pay-way supper.b. pay-as-you-earn, applied to a system of collecting income tax where the tax payable is deducted by employers from current earnings; pay-as-you-enter, applied to a system of collecting fares in public transport where passengers pay the driver on entering the vehicle; pay-as-you-go, applied to a system of paying or discharging obligations as they are incurred; pay-as-you-see, applied to a system of supplying an extra television channel to viewers paying either by subscription or by inserting coins into a box attached to the television receiver; pay-as-you-use, applied to a system of paying for an article while it is being used; pay-as-you-view = pay-as-you-see.1943Daily Tel. 22 Apr. 3 As to deduction of income-tax from wages he warned the House of the experiences of other countries which had attempted the ‘pay-as-you-earn’ idea.1972Accountant 6 Apr. 445/2 Pay-as-you-earn rates for 1972 are so much higher than last year that they could raise the tax take by the equivalent of some {pstlg}1,500 million.1908Sci. Amer. 1 Feb. 76/2 (heading) A new type of fare register to be used on the New York pay-as-you-enter cars.Ibid., The pay-as-you-enter cars which it is proposed to install on the New York city lines will be equipped with a device for collecting and automatically registering fares.1913Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 623/1 This [system of tram-car operation] is the ‘pay as you enter’, or as it is termed briefly the ‘paye’ system.1966Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 20/3 A bus driver in Brighton collecting a fare from a passenger yesterday when the country's first pay-as-you-enter, one-man operated double deck bus service began for an experimental period.1840Farmers' Cabinet 15 May 319/1 Pay as you go..is the truest economy.1888J. Bryce Amer. Commonwealth II. lxvi. 507 ‘Pay as You Go’ Convention!1936M. W. Childs Sweden xii. 214 The central government has consistently followed a pay-as-you-go tax policy.1969Times 30 Apr. 26/2 The rate of contribution needed from employees and employers jointly to finance the proposed State pensions on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis would increase from 7.7 per cent of earnings in 1972–73 to 11.4 per cent in 2002–03.a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1977) III. 176 We must therefore really accept pay-as-you-go.1978Dumfries & Galloway Standard 21 Oct. 5/7 (Advt.), It's pay-as-you-go; no big quarterly shocks.1955Times 6 Apr. 6/6 Sir Alexander Korda intends to seek permission of the United Kingdom authorities to operate ‘pay as you see’ television.1962Variety 22 Aug. 3 It's perhaps significant that all, or just about all, film distributors are leasing pictures to the Paramount-owned International Telemeter pay-as-you-see video in Etobicoke, Toronto suburb.1929Radio Times 8 Nov. 453/1 Place your order..immediately, ‘Pay as you use’ terms can be arranged.1961Engineering 1 Sept. 257/1 Pay-as-you-use techniques covering the leasing of vehicles, machinery and equipment of all kinds are to be introduced into Britain.1958Spectator 11 July 61/3 The vital issue of whether a Pay-As-You-View television service is allowed to operate in this country.1963Ann. Reg. 1962 443 Other recommendations of the [Pilkington] Committee were that pay-as-you-view television..should be rejected.c. pay-on- ―: denoting a system of paying for a service when the action expressed has been performed or fulfilled.1899J. London Let. 29 July (1966) 46 And with these pay-on-acceptance fellows, did you ever get your check at the same time you were notified of acceptance?1960Guardian 11 Apr. 8/3 London's new..bus which..has the pay-on-entry system.1961Daily Tel. 23 May 17/6 (heading) ‘Pay-on-reply’ telephoning.Ibid., Post Office engineers yesterday demonstrated the new ‘pay-on-answer’ coin boxes in seven telephone kiosks in the centre of Dartford, Kent.4. Special combs. of pay n., as paybob slang, = paymaster; pay freeze = pay pause; pay pause, a period during which no wage or salary increases should occur, esp. as proposed in 1961 in the U.K.; pay phone orig. U.S., a telephone that operates, or connects the caller, when coins are inserted; pay-rise, a wage or salary increase; pay station U.S., (a) a public call-office; (b) a public telephone-booth; pay-telephone = pay phone; pay television = pay-TV; pay-tone (see quot. 1962); pay-train (see quot. 1969); pay-TV, a system of television based on the pay-as-you-see principle (see sense 3 b).1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin viii. 125 Carn't yer get a hadvance o' money from th' paybob?1962Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 87/1 Paybob, senior accountant officer.1978Navy News Dec. 6/1 The paybob and his chum never batted an eyelid as I signed my chit and I often wonder if they paid the difference.1961New Scientist 7 Sept. 568 The Chancellor of the Exchequer's pay-freeze.1972Listener 23 Nov. 690/3 The pay and wage freeze is a shoddy compilation. Over two million workers demanding pay rises are trapped in the freeze.1975Guardian 21 Jan. 26/3 The Chancellor..said there was no question of a pay freeze in the foreseeable future.1961Daily Tel. 19 Sept. 1/8 The increases for primary and secondary schools will cost {pstlg}42 million a year, {pstlg}5½ million less than the Burnham recommendation rejected by the Government on account of the ‘pay pause’.1969C. Booker Neophiliacs vi. 158 On 25 July [1961], the Government mustered all the paraphernalia to meet a major crisis, from a 7 per cent Bank Rate to Selwyn Lloyd's celebrated ‘Pay Pause’, the first recent peacetime attempt by a Government to impose an overall regulation of wage increases.1977Evening Post (Nottingham) 27 Jan. 5/1 When the pay pause was relaxed for doctors earning over {pstlg}8,000, it was decided not to pay the increment for another year.1936L. Duncan Over Wall ii. 31 He would then go to one of the pay phones.1952W. R. Burnett Vanity Row (1953) xiii. 90 ‘Where you calling from?’ ‘A pay-phone.’1973W. McCarthy Detail iii. 215 He gave the agent the number of a pay-phone in Burbank.1975New Yorker 27 Oct. 32/1 There are six pay phones downstairs and only five of them work.1976Daily Express 1 July 14/2 In April 1976 I asked the Post Office to change my business phone to a pay phone.1936J. Steinbeck In Dubious Battle iii. 26 Hell, we don't want only temporary pay-rises.1957P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound x. 197 The soldiers of the Pacific Islands Regiment had achieved pay-rises.1923M. Watts L. Nichols 209 [He] rushed off to the nearest telephone pay station to call up the Grace house.1948Time 21 June 2 When you drop a nickel in a pay station and dial a call..as many as 1000 telephone relays go into action.1973W. McCarthy Detail iii. 215 He would like you to call this number{ddd}it is a pay station.1974Spartanburg (S. Carolina) Herald 24 Apr. A3/4 Police said Norton had answered a call from two men using a pay station, asking that a cab pick them up at a motel.1963A. Orlov Handbk. Intelligence xiii. 153 The agent avails himself of the forthcoming ‘pay telephone’ conversation with his superior.1964Punch 13 May 702/2 A man known to have installed a pay-telephone.1971A. Hunter Gently at Gallop viii. 89 There was a pay-telephone for customers. He fed in a coin and dialled the police-station.1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 28 June 6-A/3 The chairman of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. said Sunday a pay telephone call probably will cost a quarter in most places.1957Economist 28 Sept. 1028/2 The Federal Communications Commission has tentatively opened the airwaves to ‘pay television’.1962Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 262 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 ‘Subscription television’ (or ‘toll’ or ‘pay’ television, as it is variously called) involves a third method of paying.1973Listener 31 May 706/1 ‘The big news in cable now is Pay.’ He meant pay television.1962Sunday Express 4 Feb. 12 The pips are the pay-tone signal, which tells the caller that you have picked up the receiver and it is time for him to put in the coins.1972J. Wainwright Night is Time to Die (1974) 167 On S.T.D., a call-box is a dead give-away by the pay tone!1968D. I. Gordon in Regional Hist. Railway Gt. Brit. V. xii. 232 The Eastern Region is making a gallant fight. Conductor guards and the whole concept of the ‘basic’ railway with its Pay Trains, fast and well-integrated services, [etc.]..are all features of the current scene.1969Railway Mag. CXV. 169/2 Conductor/Guard workings (‘pay trains’) began on January 19 between Newcastle and Carlisle.Ibid. 473/2 From June 15, ‘paytrains’—on which tickets are issued by the guard—were introduced by the Eastern Region.1972Times 15 June 3/1 Public transport, even in an age of one-man buses, ‘pay-trains’, and automatic fare collection, is much more labour intensive than other industries.1976P. R. White Planning for Public Transport ii. 53 Little detail is recorded of trip patterns on ‘paytrain’ services.1956Britannica Bk. of Year 492/2 Also introduced from the United States—though not yet fully accepted into British English—were such expressions as Pay TV, [etc.].1960News Chron. 29 June 4/6 ‘Pay-TV’, a system whereby you put some coins in a slot at the top of the set and are rewarded by several hours uninterrupted viewing.1972Listener 8 June 773/2 Pay-TV was expensive and offered very little that was new.1976J. Lund Ultimate vi. 57 He looked at the pay TV programme—‘Jaws’ showing on odd days it said.

pay- /peɪ/ combining form. M16.

ORIGIN: Repr. pay noun, verb¹.

1.Forming nouns and adjectives with the senses ‘of or pertaining to payment’, ‘that pays’, ‘for (the use of) which payment is charged’.

2.Forming nouns and adjectives of the type pay as you —.

pay and display adjective & noun (designating) a parking system in which a motorist buys a temporary permit from a coin-operated machine and displays it in the window of the vehicle.pay as you earn a system by which an employer deducts income tax from an employee's wages before paying them to the employee and sends the deduction to the Inland Revenue; abbreviation PAYE.pay as you go adjective designating a system or practice of paying debts and meeting costs as they arise.pay bed a hospital bed for private patients.paybob slang = paymaster.pay-book: containing a record of payments (esp. wages) made.pay channel a television channel for which viewers pay a subscription fee.pay-claim a request for a higher rate of pay made by an employee, trade union, etc., to an employer.pay dirt (a) ground containing ore in sufficient quantity to be profitably extracted; (b) fig. (a source of) profit or reward.pay envelope N. Amer. = pay packet below.pay freeze a prohibition on wage and salary increases.pay gravel = pay dirt above.paymistress a woman responsible for payment of people or services; fig. a thing (personified as female) that pays or rewards.pay-or-play adjective & noun (orig. & chiefly US) (a) = play or pay s.v. play verb; (b) (designating) a scheme in which employers are legally obliged either to provide health insurance, pension contributions, etc., for their employees, or to pay into a government fund for this purpose; (c) (designating) a clause or contract guaranteeing a film actor or director a fee even if his or her services are ultimately not required.payout an act or the action of paying out; an amount of money paid out.pay packet a packet containing an employee's wages or notification of them; fig. a salary, an income.pay-per-view a system of television broadcasting in which viewers pay a fee to watch a particular programme (usually a film or a sporting event).pay phone a coin-operated telephone.pay rise an increase in a person's rate of pay.payroll noun & verb (a) noun (a list of) employees receiving regular pay; the personnel costs of a company etc.; (b) verb trans. (colloq.) finance (a person, activity, etc.).pay slip a note given to an employee when payment of a wage or salary is made, showing details of the amount and usu. deductions made by the employer.pay station US a public pay phone.pay toilet a public toilet which one has to pay to use.pay-tone an audible telephone signal indicating when a caller using a pay phone should insert a coin.pay television, pay TV television broadcasting for which payment by subscription (or by coin in the slot) gives the ability to watch a particular channel.