Word.ws English Dictionary

paying one's debt to society

paying one's debt to society is the present participle and gerund of pay one's debt to society.

Meaning of pay one's debt to society

Verb

pay one's debt to society (third-person singular simple present pays one's debt to society, present participle paying one's debt to society, simple past and past participle paid one's debt to society)

  1. (idiomatic) To serve time in prison or a similar correctional facility.

Questions about paying one's debt to society

What is paying one's debt to society the present participle and gerund of?
Paying one's debt to society is the present participle and gerund of pay one's debt to society.

Words near paying one's debt to society in the dictionary

  1. paying no heed
  2. paying no mind
  3. paying off
  4. paying off old scores
  5. paying one's addresses
  6. paying one's debt to society
  7. paying one's dues
  8. paying one's own freight
  9. paying one's own way
  10. paying one's respects
  11. paying one's way

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paying one's debt to society (page history and authors); pay one's debt to society (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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