if something that you do pays off, it brings you some benefit
to give someone all the money that you have borrowed from them to buy something
to give someone money so that they will do something bad or dishonest for you
to give someone money so that they will not do something that will cause you problems, especially by telling people about something bad that you have done
to stop employing a worker and give them any money that they are owed
All those weeks of studying will pay off when you take the exam.
And if he could not pay off his debt, they would nail him to the wall.
And probably killed by some moron with a grudge, or a bet he couldn't pay off.
Going to Andrew McClintock to pay off Jeff Rigghouse's gambling debts they knew was useless.
I'm told there's still an old mortgage Harold's widow took out six years ago to pay off her husband's debts.
Only another six months and the house will be paid off.
Over 1,000 workers will be paid off if this factory closes.
There were suspicions that officials had been paid off.
They threatened to tell reporters about him unless he paid them off.
pays off
paying off
paid off
There is no origin for this phrasal verb
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