pay for one's whistle
pay for one's whistle verb: to pay dearly for one's caprice.
Verb
pay for one's whistle (third-person singular simple present pays for one's whistle, present participle paying for one's whistle, simple past and past participle paid for one's whistle)
- To pay dearly for one's caprice.
- […] the ship may be on shore before the leader of the band can be convinced how dearly he has "paid for his whistle."1836, William Nugent Glascock, The Naval Service, page 239
- He felt mightily experienced at this time, and realized, as he thought, quite clearly, the price he had paid for his whistle. He had had his lesson, so he told himself, and had paid for it, […]1891, David Christie Murray, Henry Herman, He Fell Among Thieves, page 30
Forms of pay for one's whistle
| third-person singular present | pays for one's whistle |
|---|---|
| present participle | paying for one's whistle |
| past participle | paid for one's whistle |
| past | paid for one's whistle |
Questions about pay for one's whistle
- What does pay for one's whistle mean?
- Pay for one's whistle means to pay dearly for one's caprice.
- What part of speech is pay for one's whistle?
- Pay for one's whistle is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pay for one's whistle?
- The past tense of pay for one's whistle is paid for one's whistle.
Words near pay for one's whistle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pay for one's whistle (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-pay for one's whistle.wav.
Cite this entry: “pay for one's whistle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pay_for_one%27s_whistle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.