"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 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 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English light verb constructions, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 52 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 55 45 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 69 31 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 65 35
  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 light verb constructions Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 52 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 55 45

Inflected forms

{
  "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": [
    {
      "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": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "69 31",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "65 35",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "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": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "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",
          "outlay"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "membership",
          "membership"
        ],
        [
          "fee",
          "fee"
        ],
        [
          "price",
          "price"
        ],
        [
          "admission",
          "admission"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "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": [
        [
          "status",
          "status"
        ],
        [
          "right",
          "right"
        ],
        [
          "benefits",
          "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"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay one's dues"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English light verb constructions",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "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": [
    {
      "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": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "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": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "outlay",
          "outlay"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "membership",
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "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"
        ],
        [
          "benefits",
          "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"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay one's dues"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). 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.

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