pay the penalty
pay the penalty verb: to incur negative consequences of one's deeds; to suffer as a result of some choice.
Verb
pay the penalty (third-person singular simple present pays the penalty, present participle paying the penalty, simple past and past participle paid the penalty)
- To incur negative consequences of one's deeds; to suffer as a result of some choice.
- Synonyms:
- pay the price, pay the piper, face the music
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pay, the, penalty.
Synonyms of pay the penalty
Forms of pay the penalty
| third-person singular present | pays the penalty |
|---|---|
| present participle | paying the penalty |
| past participle | paid the penalty |
| past | paid the penalty |
Questions about pay the penalty
- What does pay the penalty mean?
- Pay the penalty means to incur negative consequences of one's deeds; to suffer as a result of some choice.
- What part of speech is pay the penalty?
- Pay the penalty is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pay the penalty?
- The past tense of pay the penalty is paid the penalty.
Words near pay the penalty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pay the penalty (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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Cite this entry: “pay the penalty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pay_the_penalty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.