pay one's last respects

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To visit the place where the remains of a dead person has been prepared for burial or cremation, either as a private act of remembrance or as a public display to others.
   • Mr. Thompson performed the service, and I preached a sermon to a crowded congregation of friends and mourners, who came together to pay their last respects to the remains of their friend and benefactor1822 The Christian Journal, and Literary Register
   • The persons that attended funerals were the friends and relations of the deceased, who thought themselves obliged to pay their last respects to the dead.1827, John Robinson, Archæologia Græca