pay for itself
pay for itself verb: to produce or result in revenue which will cover its costs.
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)
- 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
- Synonyms:
- pay one's own way
Synonyms of pay for itself
Forms of pay for itself
| third-person singular present | pays for itself |
|---|---|
| present participle | paying for itself |
| past participle | paid for itself |
| past | paid for itself |
Questions about pay for itself
- What does pay for itself mean?
- Pay for itself means to produce or result in revenue which will cover its costs.
- What part of speech is pay for itself?
- Pay for itself is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pay for itself?
- The past tense of pay for itself is paid for itself.
Words near pay for itself in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “pay for itself.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pay_for_itself. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.