pay roll

Noun

payroll (plural payrolls)

1. A list of employees who receive salary or wages, together with the amounts due to each.
   • Magazines kept aristocrats on the payroll to facilitate access to jet-set playgrounds like Corfu and Mustique.2025 June 27, Michael M. Grynbaum, “The Concorde-and-Caviar Era of Condé Nast, When Magazines Ruled the Earth”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Jun 2025

   Synonyms:

   paysheet

2. The total sum of money paid to employees.
3. The calculation of salaries and wages and the deduction of taxes etc.; the department in a company responsible for this.
4. (euphemistic) Bribes paid to people.
   • I know that the deal started with the boys in Santiago, because they’ve been on the d’Anconia pay roll for centuries — well, no, ‘pay roll’ is an honorable word, it would be more exact to say that d’Anconia Copper has been paying them protection money for centuries — isn't that what your gangsters...1957, Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

See all 5 meanings of payroll