Word.ws English Dictionary

paid one's dues

paid one's dues is the simple past and past participle of pay one's dues.

Meaning of pay one's dues

Verb

pay one's dues (third-person singular simple present pays one's dues, present participle paying one's dues, simple past and past participle paid one's dues)

  1. To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission.
    • The carrier to Casterbridge came up as Edward stepped into the road, and jumped down from the van to pay toll. . . . The carrier paid his dues.1871, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in Desperate Remedies
  2. (idiomatic) To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization.
    • Everybody wanna know / Why I'm singing the blues / Yes, I've been around a long time / People, I've paid my dues1969, B.B. King, D. Clark, “Why I Sing the Blues”, performed by B.B. King

Questions about paid one's dues

What is paid one's dues the simple past and past participle of?
Paid one's dues is the simple past and past participle of pay one's dues.

Words near paid one's dues in the dictionary

  1. paid no mind
  2. paid off
  3. paid off old scores
  4. paid one's addresses
  5. paid one's debt to society
  6. paid one's dues
  7. paid one's own freight
  8. paid one's own way
  9. paid one's respects
  10. paid one's way
  11. paid out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paid one's dues (page history and authors); pay one's dues (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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Cite this entry: “paid one's dues.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paid_one%27s_dues. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.