verb. (colloquial).—To beat; to punish; to ‘serve out’; to ‘pitch into’: generally with out: also TO PAY HOME (or AWAY). Hence PAYMENT = chastisement.—GROSE (1785).
1592. GREENE, The Blacke Bookes Messenger, in Works, xi. 34. Though God suffer the wicked for a time yet hee PAIES HOME at length.
1595. SHAKESPEARE, 3 Henry VI., i. 4.
| Clif. Ay, to such mercy, as his ruthless arm, | |
| With downright PAYMENT, shew’d unto my father. |
1614. Terence in English [NARES]. To conclude, be sure you crosse her, PAY HER HOME with the like.
1628. Robin Good-fellow [HALLIWELL]. If they uncase a sloven and not unty their points, I so PAY their armes that they cannot sometimes untye them, if they would.
d. 1631. CAPT. JOHN SMITH, Works, I. 140. Defending the children with their naked bodies from the vnmercifull blowes, that PAY them soundly.
1631. CHETTLE, Hoffman, v., 3.
| Luc. Well farewell fellow, thou art now PAID HOME | |
| For all thy councelling in knavery. |
1640. King and poore Northerne Man [HALLIWELL]. They with a foxe tale him soundly did PAY.
1711. Spectator, No. 174. Sir Roger … thinks he has PAID me OFF, and been very severe upon the merchant.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary. PAY … also to thrash, beat, or whip a boy, i.e., for a fault.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. PAY. I will PAY you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes and all your d—d jaws.
d. 1796. BURNS, A Waukrife Minnie, v.
| And wi’ a mickle hazel-rung | |
| She made her a weel-PAY’D dochter. |
1849. THACKERAY, Dr. Birch and His Young Friends. You see if I don’t PAY you OUT after school—you sneak you!
1871. G. MEREDITH, The Adventures of Harry Richmond, xlv. Now they had caught me, now they would PAY me, now they would pound me.
1884. W. C. RUSSELL, Jack’s Courtship, xxiv. Were he not so cruelly ill I should say he was being well PAID OUT.
TO PAY AWAY, verb. (colloquial).—1. To go on; to proceed: as with a narration or action. 2. See quot. 1785.
1670. EACHARD, The Ground and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion [ARBER, English Garner, vii. 308]. Who … think, had they but licence and authority to preach, O how they could PAY it AWAY! and that they can tell the people such strange things, as they never heard before, in all their lives.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. PAY. TO PAY AWAY, to fight manfully, also to eat voraciously.
1887. BESANT, The World Went Very Well Then, xxviii. Ay, ay, my girl; PAY it OUT. I am a sailors’ apothecary. I am old and envious. PAY it OUT. I value not thy words—no, not even a rope’s yam.
1873. J. B. STEPHENS, Miscellaneous Poems [1880], ‘My Chinee Cook.’ You bought them? Ah, I fear me, John, you PAID them WITH A HOOK!
COLLOQUIALISMS are:—TO PAY OLD SCORES = to get even; TO PAY ONE IN HIS OWN COIN = to give tit for tat; TO PAY THE LAST DEBT (or THE DEBT OF NATURE) = to die; ‘WHAT’S TO PAY?’ = ‘what’s the matter’; TO PAY UP AND LOOK PRETTY (or BIG) = to accept the inevitable with grace. See also DEUCE, DEVIL, FOOTING, FIDLER, NOSE, PEPPERIDGE, PIPER, RENT, SCORES, SHOT, and WHISTLE.
1633. FORD, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iv. 1. I was acquainted with the danger of her disposition; and now have fitted her a just PAYMENT IN HER OWN COIN.
1678. COTTON, Virgil Travestie, in Works (1725), Bk. iv., p. 74.
| Venus … | |
| Like cunning Quean in Smiles array’d her, | |
| And in HER OWN COIN thus SHE PAID HER. |
1708. PRIOR, The Mice.
| The Sire of these two Babes (poor Creature) | |
| PAID HIS LAST DEBT TO HUMAN NATURE. |
1894. G. A. SALA, London up to Date, 297. The Hon. Plantagenet PAID UP AND LOOKED PRETTY.
