paying off

Verb

pay off (third-person singular simple present pays off, present participle paying off, simple past and past participle paid off)

1. (informal, transitive) To bribe, especially to deter oversight.
   • I thought the guards would give us trouble, but apparently he had paid them off.
2. (intransitive) To become worthwhile; to produce a net benefit.
   • Her years of Spanish classes finally paid off when she found herself in Mexico and realized she could communicate with people.
3. (transitive) To pay back; to repay.
   • He paid off the loan three months early.

   Synonyms:

   extinguish

4. (transitive) To pay back (repay) the entirety of a loan, thereby effecting the release of a lien on (the thing that was financed).
   • This contract requires you to pay off the car by 2025.
5. (transitive) To pay and discharge (an employee).
   • The cook, who had been an indifferent worker on the trip over, came aboard drunk and was immediately paid off. Amazingly, twenty men applied to fill the vacancy.1959, Albert Lansing, Endurance, page 25
6. To fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.