A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

pay attention to someone • pay attentions to
someone
pay attention to someone —take notice of smb.; show interest
in a person: Hardly anyone of the crew of six paid any atten-
tion to the man and teenage boy who had come aboard.
pay attentions to someone—(also: pay one’s attentions to some-
one) court a woman in the hope of winning her affections:
The newspapers report that at the moment he is paying his
attentions to an Italian countess.
pay-book • paying-in book
pay-book —an individual pay record of a member of the
armed forces: Henry opened Dooley’s pay-book, the pages of
which showed liberal sprinklings of the red ink with which
fines and convictions were entered.
paying-in book —(UK) bankbook in which the bank enters
a person’s deposits and withdrawals: The purpose of these
stubs in a paying-in book is for the holder to have a record of
the amount of money he had deposited in his bank.
pay in kind • repay in kind
pay in kind —pay for smth. in goods, not money: Their rev-
enues were mostly paid, not in money, but in kind, such as
corn, wine and cattle.
repay in kind —(also: pay back in kind) return the hostile or
unfair action with the like: He was rude to me, so I repaid
him in kind.
pay off something • pay out something
pay off something —
1
. pay money owed for smth. in full: We
have paid off the house only to find that real estate taxes are
so high that we cannot afford to keep the house. 2. (Nautical)
take a ship out of use, for repair or at the end of her last voy-
age: The decision to pay off the ship came during the last days
of her deployment.
pay out something —
1
. (of money) pay in small amounts (in
settlement of debts, etc.): Millions of pounds were being paid
out every week in unemployment benefit. 2. allow a rope, etc.
to move freely through one’s hands: Secure the load in position
and pay out enough cable to remove all tension on the cable
and drum.