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Glite Dictionary
🪙 A 10-cent coin 💊 A drug packet 💵 To give money ⏳ To pay slowly
to dime

to dime

9.1
To pay for something in small amounts over time
  • verb
  • /daɪm/
  • US
translation icon : pagar a plazos
  • He prefers to dime expensive items so he can manage his budget more easily.

Examples

  • Instead of buying the phone outright, she chose to dime it over several months.

  • They decided to dime their new furniture rather than pay the full price immediately.

  • I need to dime my payments for the car.

  • Can you dime the rent this month?

  • She decided to dime her vacation expenses, paying for the trip in small installments over the next year.

  • Instead of paying the full price, he chose to dime his new phone, making monthly payments.

  • They will dime the project costs, funding it gradually rather than all at once.

Synonyms

to nickel-and-dime
vsto dime
  • Informal
1 7.9

To manage using only small amounts of money at a time

focuses on paying for things in small installments rather than general money handling

Idioms

a dime a dozen
  • Informal
12 3.2

Very common and not special or valuable

on a dime
  • Informal
10 6.8

To move very quickly and with exact control when changing direction or plans

to drop a dime
  • Slang
7 9.8

To tell the police about someone's crime, often secretly

to turn on a dime
  • Informal
3 7.2

To turn quickly in a very small space, like a car

on someone's dime
  • Informal
1 8.1

Someone else pays for it

worth a dime
  • Informal
1 7.0

Having little or no value

not worth a dime
  • Informal
1 6.2

Of no value or use

Phrasal Verbs

to nickel-and-dime
  • Informal
1 7.9

To manage using only small amounts of money at a time

to nickel and dime
  • Informal
1 8.5

To charge many small extra fees that add up unfairly

Compounds

dime bag
  • NSFW
5 9.9

A small bag of illegal marijuana sold for ten dollars

dime novel
  • Archaic
1 8.5

A cheap exciting paperback story of adventure popular in late 1800s America

nickel-and-dime
  • Informal
1 7.2

Small and not important, usually involving little money

Yankee dime
  • Informal
9.9

A very small amount of money or a small favor given as a token

How Quickly Paid

to pay off
153 2.7
to dime
  • US
9.1

Surface Forms

dime infinitive
dimed past
dimed past participle
diming present participle
dimes third person singular

Etymology

Dime as a verb meaning to pay in small amounts comes from the idea of paying with small coins; a helpful way to remember it is to think of paying by 'dimes' little by little, so to 'dime' something is to pay for it in small parts.