That which pays for working.
1857. The miners talk of rich dirt and poor dirt, and of “stripping off” so many feet of “top dirt” before getting to “pay dirt,” the latter meaning dirt with so much gold in it that it will pay to dig it up and wash it.—Borthwick, ‘California,’ p. 121 (Bartlett).
1857. Ten thousand dollars have been expended in reaching pay dirt at the Cumberland claim.—San Francisco Call, March 4.
1859. You descend in the “lead” or “crevasse” until pay-dirt is reached, at a depth varying from one to twenty-five feet.—Rocky Mtn. News, Cherry Creek, Kas. Ter., June 18.
1869. Emptying our pockets in any new speculation that offered the slightest symptom of a “pay-streak.”—J. Ross Browne, ‘Adventures in the Apache Country,’ p. 488.
1869. If the digging shows “pay dirt,” he stakes his claim.—A. K. McClure, ‘Rocky Mountains,’ p. 320.
1909. The fellow who has struck pay ore and doesn’t need money for development, and doesn’t wish to sell, is about as uncommunicative as a malefactor of great wealth before an investigating committee.—N.Y. Evening Post, Feb. 18.
1909. At intervals overhead were openings through which the ore was tumbled down from the stopes cut upward in long, slanting drifts, following the pay streak.—Id., April 15.
