"pay to play" meaning in English

See pay to play in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From sometime practice of charging a fee for admission to a gambling game. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} pay to play (uncountable)
  1. Any kind of charge to engage in an activity. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-pay_to_play-en-noun-0d-Y4yB-
  2. Any kind of charge to engage in an activity.
    (espeically US, politics) Campaign contributions (or outright bribes or graft) required to avail oneself of certain opportunities controlled by politicians, such as uncompetitive government contracts.
    Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Politics
    Sense id: en-pay_to_play-en-noun-vRWLq~jJ Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 22 41 4 31 3 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 12 43 7 33 5 Topics: government, politics
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: payola

Verb

Forms: pays to play [present, singular, third-person], paying to play [participle, present], paid to play [participle, past], paid to play [past]
Etymology: From sometime practice of charging a fee for admission to a gambling game. Head templates: {{en-verb|pay<,,paid> to play}} pay to play (third-person singular simple present pays to play, present participle paying to play, simple past and past participle paid to play)
  1. (by extension) To incur a cost to participate in an activity. Tags: broadly
    Sense id: en-pay_to_play-en-verb-jVw83aen
  2. (by extension) To incur a cost to participate in an activity.
    (especially US, politics) To make a campaign contribution or illegal payment to avail oneself of business or other opportunities controlled by politicians.
    Tags: US, broadly, especially Categories (topical): Politics
    Sense id: en-pay_to_play-en-verb-JOZdAIpZ Categories (other): American English Topics: government, politics
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pay, to, play. Synonyms: pay-to-play [attributive, especially, noun]
    Sense id: en-pay_to_play-en-verb-VWmJO1gm

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From sometime practice of charging a fee for admission to a gambling game.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pays to play",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paying to play",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid to play",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid to play",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pay<,,paid> to play"
      },
      "expansion": "pay to play (third-person singular simple present pays to play, present participle paying to play, simple past and past participle paid to play)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To incur a cost to participate in an activity."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_to_play-en-verb-jVw83aen",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) To incur a cost to participate in an activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To incur a cost to participate in an activity.",
        "To make a campaign contribution or illegal payment to avail oneself of business or other opportunities controlled by politicians."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_to_play-en-verb-JOZdAIpZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) To incur a cost to participate in an activity.",
        "(especially US, politics) To make a campaign contribution or illegal payment to avail oneself of business or other opportunities controlled by politicians."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "broadly",
        "especially"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pay, to, play."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_to_play-en-verb-VWmJO1gm",
      "links": [
        [
          "pay",
          "pay#English"
        ],
        [
          "to",
          "to#English"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 5 91 0 0",
          "tags": [
            "attributive",
            "especially",
            "noun"
          ],
          "word": "pay-to-play"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay to play"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From sometime practice of charging a fee for admission to a gambling game.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "pay to play (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "payola"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Any kind of charge to engage in an activity."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_to_play-en-noun-0d-Y4yB-",
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 41 4 31 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 43 7 33 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any kind of charge to engage in an activity.",
        "Campaign contributions (or outright bribes or graft) required to avail oneself of certain opportunities controlled by politicians, such as uncompetitive government contracts."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_to_play-en-noun-vRWLq~jJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ],
        [
          "graft",
          "graft"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "Any kind of charge to engage in an activity.",
        "(espeically US, politics) Campaign contributions (or outright bribes or graft) required to avail oneself of certain opportunities controlled by politicians, such as uncompetitive government contracts."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay to play"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From sometime practice of charging a fee for admission to a gambling game.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pays to play",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paying to play",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid to play",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid to play",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pay<,,paid> to play"
      },
      "expansion": "pay to play (third-person singular simple present pays to play, present participle paying to play, simple past and past participle paid to play)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To incur a cost to participate in an activity."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) To incur a cost to participate in an activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "en:Politics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To incur a cost to participate in an activity.",
        "To make a campaign contribution or illegal payment to avail oneself of business or other opportunities controlled by politicians."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) To incur a cost to participate in an activity.",
        "(especially US, politics) To make a campaign contribution or illegal payment to avail oneself of business or other opportunities controlled by politicians."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "broadly",
        "especially"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pay, to, play."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pay",
          "pay#English"
        ],
        [
          "to",
          "to#English"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "attributive",
        "especially",
        "noun"
      ],
      "word": "pay-to-play"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay to play"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From sometime practice of charging a fee for admission to a gambling game.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "pay to play (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "payola"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Any kind of charge to engage in an activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "en:Politics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any kind of charge to engage in an activity.",
        "Campaign contributions (or outright bribes or graft) required to avail oneself of certain opportunities controlled by politicians, such as uncompetitive government contracts."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ],
        [
          "graft",
          "graft"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "Any kind of charge to engage in an activity.",
        "(espeically US, politics) Campaign contributions (or outright bribes or graft) required to avail oneself of certain opportunities controlled by politicians, such as uncompetitive government contracts."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "attributive",
        "especially",
        "noun"
      ],
      "word": "pay-to-play"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay to play"
}

Download raw JSONL data for pay to play meaning in English (3.2kB)

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: espeically US, politics",
  "path": [
    "pay to play"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "pay to play",
  "trace": ""
}

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: espeically US, politics",
  "path": [
    "pay to play"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "pay to play",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-09-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-08-20 using wiktextract (8e41825 and f99c758). 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.