"pay it forward" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pays it forward",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paying it forward",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid it forward",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid it forward",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,paid>"
      },
      "expansion": "pay it forward (third-person singular simple present pays it forward, present participle paying it forward, simple past and past participle paid it forward)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              45,
              59
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR:",
          "text": "The study authors, citing other examples of \"pay it forward\" kindness at fast food restaurants and their own experiments encouraging subjects to help others, write: \"Why, in the absence of external sanctions and opportunities for reciprocation, do people help strangers? One possible explanation is that helping is driven by receiving or observing help. In other words, generosity towards strangers may be socially contagious.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of pay forward."
      ],
      "id": "en-pay_it_forward-en-verb-TMoFrxA3",
      "links": [
        [
          "pay forward",
          "pay forward#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "pay forward"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay it forward"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pays it forward",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paying it forward",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid it forward",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paid it forward",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,paid>"
      },
      "expansion": "pay it forward (third-person singular simple present pays it forward, present participle paying it forward, simple past and past participle paid it forward)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
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        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              45,
              59
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR:",
          "text": "The study authors, citing other examples of \"pay it forward\" kindness at fast food restaurants and their own experiments encouraging subjects to help others, write: \"Why, in the absence of external sanctions and opportunities for reciprocation, do people help strangers? One possible explanation is that helping is driven by receiving or observing help. In other words, generosity towards strangers may be socially contagious.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of pay forward."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pay forward",
          "pay forward#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "pay forward"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pay it forward"
}