to pay dividends
16
3.9
- phrasal verb
- /peɪ ˈdɪvɪˌdɛndz/
- Investing in your education will pay dividends throughout your career by opening new opportunities.
- begin paying dividends
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Watch on YouTubeWhat should we be doing today that we can expect to pay dividends in four and five years?
- What should we be doing today that we can expect to pay dividends in four and five years?
- I'm going to take action that pays dividends.
- And the injection of humanity in a human enterprise pays dividends.
- And I feel like the work that I'm putting in has really paid dividends.
- So we buy more rental property, we invest in oil, gold, stocks to pay dividends and all this.
- No child should have to learn this young, but this unfortunate skill can actually pay dividends for some invisible children down the road.
- Accepting yourself is a far more serene and self preserving path to take that will pay dividends.
- And sure enough, that relationship paid dividends for her in more ways than one.
Examples
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The strength of the U.S.-Chinese relationship pays dividends in quiet but critical ways.
Academic text (2007) -
The position switch combined with Mark's new attitude quickly paid dividends on the practice field.
Blog text (34) -
And sure enough, that relationship paid dividends for her in more ways than one.
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What should we be doing today that we can expect to pay dividends in four and five years?
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The extra effort required is worth it and will pay dividends, especially if you learn names early in the year.
Academic text (1993) -
Again, the value of a bespoke approach pays dividends, even if it's a lot more work.
Blog text (10) -
Such systems for cleansing community water are public investments that pay dividends.
Academic text (2007) -
A proactive approach to informing your customers will pay dividends in greater customer satisfaction.
Academic text (1997) -
We expect it will pay dividends in higher circulation and greater patron satisfaction with the browsing experience.
Academic text (2015) -
The outside-of-the-box thinking is delivering technological advances that will pay dividends and quickly change the storage landscape.
Blog text (1)
Synonyms
203
3.4
Bring a reward after hard work
Antonyms
How Beneficial
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'pay' (to give/produce) with 'dividends' (returns or benefits), so its meaning 'to yield benefits or positive returns' is directly inferable from the constituents. Although metaphorical (financial → general benefit), this mapping is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both words should grasp the expression.
Etymology
Pay dividends comes from investing, where a company pays regular dividends, small money payments, to people who own part of the company. So when an action 'pays dividends', it gives good results or rewards later.