pay back
verb/peɪ bæk/
1
To pay (a debt or the lender) so as to provide the entire amount of money owed.
- Douglas: Roy, give me £20. Roy: What? Douglas: Give me £20. I'll pay you back.2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1
- He paid her back with interest, giving her ₿3 and an NFT for the $6 he'd borrowed last week.
1 more example
- He paid back all the money he owed her, with interest.
2
Figuratively To avenge, to exact revenge.
- He paid her back with interest, avenging his father's murder with nine degrees of reprisal.
- Derived terms
- payback
- Related terms
- pay off old scores, pay the piper, pay the price