Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
distribute money ; todisburse - verb nautical To
slacken arope bylengthening it; to allow a rope torun out . - verb To
repay , takerevenge
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb expend, as from a fund
Etymologies
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Examples
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chained_bear commented on the word pay out
"Bedtime stories told of killing whales and eluding cannibals in the Pacific. One mother approvingly recounted how her nine-year-old son attached a fork to the end of a ball of darning cotton and then proceeded to harpoon the family cat. The mother happened into the room just as the terrified pet attempted to escape, and unsure of what she had found herself in the middle of, she picked up the cotton ball. Like a veteran boatsteerer, the boy shouted, 'Pay out, mother! Pay out! There she sounds through the window!'"
--Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 13
May 1, 2008