pay up

verb

Definition of pay upnext
as in to pay
to give what is owed for for once our bills are all paid up

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pay up
  1. pay
  2. pay off
  3. meet
Verb
  • The House can move the bill forward without requiring cuts elsewhere to pay for it.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 9 Nov. 2026
  • The lawsuit alleged that the facility violated the state's minimum wage and forced labor laws by paying detainees $1 a day to work at the facility, sometimes under threat of solitary confinement.
    — Christa Swanson, CBS News, 8 Nov. 2026
Definition of pay
Verb
  • In September of 2021, desperate to pay off a loan, and to keep the debt a secret from his girlfriend, Jontay went on a five-day binge.
    — New Yorker, New Yorker, 8 Nov. 2026
  • The subtext for this latest crackdown, said The Straits Times (Singapore), is that Xi’s long-running purges are not paying off.
    — The Week UK, TheWeek, 7 Nov. 2026
Definition of pay off
Verb
  • The two met every night from April 1-3 at Pinder’s apartment in Sweetwater, where they were quizzed about the fraternity’s history and beaten with paddles and canes for wrong answers, according to Sweetwater police.
    — Verónica Egui Brito, Miami Herald, 14 Nov. 2026
  • Corsica is a place where cinematic elegance meets rugged natural beauty.
    — Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 13 Nov. 2026
Definition of meet
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

pays up
pay up
PDQ
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Pay up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pay%20up. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of lissome

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
speech-bubble-untangle
Simplify The Convoluted Expression Quiz A quiz that’s as “uncomplicated as a round de...
See All