Word.ws English Dictionary

pay or play

pay or play noun: a kind of contract ensuring that an actor, director, etc. is paid even if their work is ultimately not used.

Noun

pay or play (uncountable)

  1. (attributive, often) A kind of contract ensuring that an actor, director, etc. is paid even if their work is ultimately not used.

Questions about pay or play

What does pay or play mean?
Pay or play means a kind of contract ensuring that an actor, director, etc. is paid even if their work is ultimately not used.
What part of speech is pay or play?
Pay or play is a noun.

Words near pay or play in the dictionary

  1. pay one's own freight
  2. pay one's own way
  3. pay one's respects
  4. pay one's way
  5. pay or okay
  6. pay or play
  7. pay out
  8. pay overs
  9. pay packet
  10. pay packets
  11. pay per play

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pay or play (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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