Word.ws English Dictionary

putting paid to

putting paid to is the present participle and gerund of put paid to.

Meaning of put paid to

Verb

put paid to (third-person singular simple present puts paid to, present participle putting paid to, simple past and past participle put paid to)

  1. (UK, dated) To mark a bill or a debt record as "paid".
    • Well, then, I'll put paid to that little account.1893 December, Mrs. Alexander, “Found Wanting”, in Belgravia, volume 82, page 353
  2. (UK) To put an end to.
    • When peace came in 1802 she regained a measure of control, but it was wrested from her when war with Britain broke out once more in 1805 and Nelson put paid to Spanish sea power in the Atlantic at the Battle of Trafalgar.1992, Edwin Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America, London; New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 204
  3. (UK, idiomatic) To terminate; to cancel (plans or expectations); to preclude (possibilities); to stop (something) once and for all.
    • The rain put paid to our plans for a picnic.

Questions about putting paid to

What is putting paid to the present participle and gerund of?
Putting paid to is the present participle and gerund of put paid to.

Words near putting paid to in the dictionary

  1. putting out the fire
  2. putting out to grass
  3. putting out to pasture
  4. putting out to sea
  5. putting over
  6. putting paid to
  7. putting past
  8. putting pen to paper
  9. putting round
  10. putting salt on someone's tail
  11. putting some timber on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting paid to (page history and authors); put paid to (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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