Word.ws English Dictionary

pays the fiddler

pays the fiddler is the third-person singular simple present indicative of pay the fiddler.

Meaning of pay the fiddler

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To face the consequences of one's actions.
    • The three-day party had been a lot of fun, but now it was time to pay the fiddler.
  2. (idiomatic) To contribute in order to participate.
    • If you want to dance, you’ve got to pay the fiddler

Questions about pays the fiddler

What is pays the fiddler the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Pays the fiddler is the third-person singular simple present indicative of pay the fiddler.

Words near pays the fiddler in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pays the fiddler (page history and authors); pay the fiddler (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “pays the fiddler.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pays_the_fiddler. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.