Word.ws English Dictionary

paying the bills

paying the bills is the present participle and gerund of pay the bills.

Meaning of pay the bills

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) Of a job or profession, to provide enough income to sustain one's lifestyle.
    • Being a dentist isn't so glamorous, but it pays the bills.
    Synonyms:
    pay the rent

Questions about paying the bills

What is paying the bills the present participle and gerund of?
Paying the bills is the present participle and gerund of pay the bills.

Words near paying the bills in the dictionary

  1. paying one's way
  2. paying out
  3. paying overs
  4. paying respect
  5. paying someone's way
  6. paying the bills
  7. paying the fiddler
  8. paying the freight
  9. paying the penalty
  10. paying the piper
  11. paying the price

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paying the bills (page history and authors); pay the bills (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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