pay

Etymology 1

From Middle English payen, from Old French paiier (“pay”), from Medieval Latin pācāre (“to settle, satisfy”) from Latin pācāre (“to pacify”). In this sense, displaced native Old English ġield (“pay”) and ġieldan (“to pay”), whence Modern English yield.

verb

1. (transitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
   he paid him to clean the place up
   he paid her off the books and in kind where possible
   Admiral Hackett: You can pay a soldier to fire a gun. You can pay him to charge the enemy. But you can't pay him to believe. 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2
   The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained. 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48
2. (transitive, intransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
   she offered to pay the bill
   he has paid his debt to society
   Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property. 2013-06-22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
3. (transitive) To be profitable for.
   It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
4. (transitive) To give (something else than money).
   to pay attention
5. (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.
   crime doesn’t pay
   it will pay to wait
6. (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.
   He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.
7. (intransitive) To suffer consequences.
   He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
8. (transitive) To admit that a joke, punchline, etc., was funny.
   Sutho took a pull at his Johnny Walker and Coke and laughed that trademark laugh of his and said: `Okay. I'll pay that all right.' 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 294

noun

1. Money given in return for work; salary or wages.
   Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.

adj

1. Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.
   pay toilet
2. Pertaining to or requiring payment.

Etymology 2

Old French peier, from Latin picare (“to cover with pitch”).

verb

1. (nautical, transitive) To cover (the bottom of a vessel, a seam, a spar, etc.) with tar or pitch, or a waterproof composition of tallow, resin, etc.; to smear.