Word.ws English Dictionary

paid for itself

paid for itself is the simple past and past participle of pay for itself.

Meaning of pay for itself

Verb

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

  1. To produce or result in revenue which will cover its costs.
    • Although welded rails cost considerably more to lay than ordinary track, there is a great saving in maintenance, and it is estimated that welding pays for itself in less than three years.1950 July, “Long Welded Rails in America”, in Railway Magazine, page 434

Questions about paid for itself

What is paid for itself the simple past and past participle of?
Paid for itself is the simple past and past participle of pay for itself.

Words near paid for itself in the dictionary

  1. paid back
  2. paid back in someone's own coin
  3. paid dearly
  4. paid dividends
  5. paid down
  6. paid for itself
  7. paid for one's whistle
  8. paid forward
  9. paid good money after bad
  10. paid heed
  11. paid homage to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paid for itself (page history and authors); pay for itself (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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