Synonyms of pay off

pay off 1 of 3

verb

1

as in to pay

to give what is owed for

I finally paid off the loan

Synonyms & Similar Words

• pay
• pay up
• meet
• settle
• balance
• spring (for)
• stand
• pony up
• ante (up)
• foot
• liquidate
• discharge
• quit
• clear
• recompense

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• repudiate

2

as in to bribe

to influence someone with a bribe

she paid off the security guard so that she could steal whatever she liked

Synonyms & Similar Words

• bribe
• get at
• buy
• have
• lure
• seduce
• poison
• provoke
• entice
• corrupt
• persuade
• square
• tempt
• grease the palm of
• oil the palm of
• lead on
• oil the hand of
• tamper (with)
• grease the hand of
• induce
• subvert
• spur
• motivate
• dishonor
• taint
• prostitute
• bait
• stimulate
• degrade
• debauch
• deprave
• trap
• debase
• defile
• pervert
• demean
• warp
• abase
• allure
• profane
• fix
• goad
• beguile
• flatter
• snare

payoff

2 of 3

noun

ˈpā-ˌȯf 

as in profit

the amount of money left when expenses are subtracted from the total amount received

the payoff on the investment was only about $500

Synonyms & Similar Words

• profit
• earnings
• proceeds
• gain
• return
• income
• salary
• net
• windfall
• lucre
• sales
• cleanup
• revenue
• payment
• wages
• killing
• pay
• compensation
• bottom line
• yield
• interest
• gross
• emolument
• remittal
• requital

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• cost
• expense
• loss
• expenditure
• charge
• outlay
• disbursement
• outgo

payoff

3 of 3

adjective

as in pivotal

Synonyms & Similar Words

• pivotal
• cataclysmic
• watershed
• decisive
• deciding
• earthshaking
• epochal
• momentous
• make-or-break
• life-or-death
• crucial
• life-and-death
• cataclysmal
• critical
• crossover
• fateful
• crowning
• climactic
• culminating
• highest
• vital
• crestal
• apocalyptic
• go-no-go
• apical
• meridian
• apocalyptical
• climacteric
• high
• apogean

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• anticlimactic
• trivial
• insignificant
• unimportant
• inconsequential
• anticlimactical
• indecisive
• noncritical

Examples of pay off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

All your studying and those extracurricular activities are finally paying off — you’ve been accepted to your dream school. —Allie Volpe, Vox, 19 Sep. 2024

Turns out that paying attention in psych class pays off, and Dwight is successfully brainwashed. —Gretchen Hansen, EW.com, 18 Sep. 2024

Noun

At an elevation of 7,000 feet, Flagstaff’s winters are cold, but the payoff comes in the summer, when, owing to a higher elevation, temperatures are considerably cooler than in Phoenix. —William P. Barrett, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2024

In a first, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have discovered that abnormal neural activity in the motor cortex of the brain – the area responsible for sending signals to direct how the body moves – increases when the reward payoff is greatest. —New Atlas, 13 Sep. 2024