"pay one's dues" meaning in All languages combined

See pay one's dues on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: En-au-pay one's dues.ogg [Australia] Forms: pays one's dues [present, singular, third-person], paying one's dues [participle, present], paid one's dues [participle, past], paid one's dues [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|pay<,,paid> one's dues}} pay one's dues (third-person singular simple present pays one's dues, present participle paying one's dues, simple past and past participle paid one's dues)
  1. To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission.
    Sense id: en-pay_one's_dues-en-verb-OVhXrsaW
  2. (idiomatic) To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-pay_one's_dues-en-verb-V3xPAMMn Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English light verb constructions, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 62 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 29 71 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 30 70 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 31 69

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for pay one's dues meaning in All languages combined (3.9kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pays one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paying one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pay<,,paid> one's dues"
      },
      "expansion": "pay one's dues (third-person singular simple present pays one's dues, present participle paying one's dues, simple past and past participle paid one's dues)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1871, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in Desperate Remedies",
          "text": "The carrier to Casterbridge came up as Edward stepped into the road, and jumped down from the van to pay toll. . . . The carrier paid his dues.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_one's_dues-en-verb-OVhXrsaW",
      "links": [
        [
          "outlay",
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        ],
        [
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          "money"
        ],
        [
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          "membership"
        ],
        [
          "fee",
          "fee"
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        [
          "price",
          "price"
        ],
        [
          "admission",
          "admission"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 62",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "29 71",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 70",
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          "name": "English light verb constructions",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 69",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1969, B.B. King, D. Clark (lyrics and music), “Why I Sing the Blues”, performed by B.B. King",
          "text": "Everybody wanna know / Why I'm singing the blues / Yes, I've been around a long time / People, I've paid my dues",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 August 7, Jeff Leeds, “A Money Scandal That's Rocking Hip-Hop”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-07-17",
          "text": "[S]he spent some time paying her dues at entry-level jobs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 November 6, Donald Morrison, “Still Enough Wrongs To Write”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-06-30",
          "text": "He too championed the anti-apartheid cause, paid his dues, had his works banned.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic, →ISSN",
          "text": "[Josephine Baker] paid her dues in a touring chorus line, and gradually attracted attention for making funny faces, and was rewarded with a respectable third-banana speaking part in the authors' next show, and got some more attention, and so on.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_one's_dues-en-verb-V3xPAMMn",
      "links": [
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        ],
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        ],
        [
          "experience",
          "experience"
        ],
        [
          "hardship",
          "hardship"
        ],
        [
          "service",
          "service"
        ],
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pay one's dues.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d0/En-au-pay_one%27s_dues.ogg/En-au-pay_one%27s_dues.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/En-au-pay_one%27s_dues.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay one's dues"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English light verb constructions",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pays one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paying one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid one's dues",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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        "1": "pay<,,paid> one's dues"
      },
      "expansion": "pay one's dues (third-person singular simple present pays one's dues, present participle paying one's dues, simple past and past participle paid one's dues)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
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        {
          "ref": "1871, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in Desperate Remedies",
          "text": "The carrier to Casterbridge came up as Edward stepped into the road, and jumped down from the van to pay toll. . . . The carrier paid his dues.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "outlay",
          "outlay"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
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          "membership"
        ],
        [
          "fee",
          "fee"
        ],
        [
          "price",
          "price"
        ],
        [
          "admission",
          "admission"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1969, B.B. King, D. Clark (lyrics and music), “Why I Sing the Blues”, performed by B.B. King",
          "text": "Everybody wanna know / Why I'm singing the blues / Yes, I've been around a long time / People, I've paid my dues",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 August 7, Jeff Leeds, “A Money Scandal That's Rocking Hip-Hop”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-07-17",
          "text": "[S]he spent some time paying her dues at entry-level jobs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 November 6, Donald Morrison, “Still Enough Wrongs To Write”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-06-30",
          "text": "He too championed the anti-apartheid cause, paid his dues, had his works banned.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic, →ISSN",
          "text": "[Josephine Baker] paid her dues in a touring chorus line, and gradually attracted attention for making funny faces, and was rewarded with a respectable third-banana speaking part in the authors' next show, and got some more attention, and so on.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "status",
          "status"
        ],
        [
          "right",
          "right"
        ],
        [
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          "benefits"
        ],
        [
          "experience",
          "experience"
        ],
        [
          "hardship",
          "hardship"
        ],
        [
          "service",
          "service"
        ],
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pay one's dues.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d0/En-au-pay_one%27s_dues.ogg/En-au-pay_one%27s_dues.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/En-au-pay_one%27s_dues.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay one's dues"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.