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Glite Dictionary
🛒 To collect or buy 🧠 To learn or notice 📦 To lift 📈 To improve 💘 To meet romantically 🚓 To arrest 💳 To pay 🐦 To eat small bits 🎨 To match visually
to pick up

to pick up

77 2.8
To pay for something, often for someone else
  • phrasal verb
  • /pɪk ʌp/
translation icon : pagar
  • After finishing our meal, he graciously offered to pick up the check for everyone.
  • pick up the tab
  • pick up the check

This means the rest of society picks up the tab for the non compete.

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Examples

  • At dinner last night, he insisted on picking up the check even though it was my birthday.

  • - The Mafia is a high-overhead machine... and somebody's gotta pick up the tab.

    Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998)

  • OK, so this couple where she wanted him to pick up the check for dinner and he was like, yeah, OK.

    Tom Bilyeu

  • - Cool, we're right behind you once we just pick up the bill.

    Clinton Road (2019)

  • You can pick up your check at the same time.

    The Ninth Gate (1999)

  • Now you can pick up the bill, 'cause at this point it's evidence.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I know because I had to pick up the tab for breakfast.

    Payne & Redemption (2022)

  • No, I pick up all the tabs.

    The Hustler (1961)

  • As I told you, Stark will be picking up the tab for the reception.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I tell you what, as the president of the Atoka Lumber Company I'll pick up the tab.

    The Klansman (1974)

Synonyms

to pay
vsto pick up
∞ 1.0

To give money for something you buy or owe

often covers another person's expense rather than general transactions
to foot
vsto pick up
  • Informal
32 7.9

To pay the cost of something, often a large bill

typically implies doing this for others rather than for oneself
to foot the bill
vsto pick up
  • Informal
29 5.3

To pay for something, often when it is expensive or unexpected

is often used when covering costs for other people
to spring for
vsto pick up
  • Informal
22 7.6

To pay for something as a treat for other people

is more neutral and not specifically a generous treat
to pony up
vsto pick up
  • Informal
21 8.2

Pay money, often reluctantly, when others expect it

is more neutral and can be voluntary rather than reluctant
to fork over
vsto pick up
  • Informal
15 6.1

To give money to someone after they ask or force you

usually lacks the unwilling or pressured element in its use
to ante up
vsto pick up
  • Informal
8 7.8

Pay money you owe as your part of a shared bill

focuses more on voluntary covering for others rather than settling owed shares
to fork up
vsto pick up
  • Informal
1 8.1

To pay money unwillingly

usually lacks the reluctance or complaint when covering costs

Antonyms

to refuse
716 1.7

To say no to a request or offer

to withhold
210 5.1

Refuse to give something someone wants or needs

How Generous

to foot the bill
  • Informal
29 5.3
to pick up
77 2.8
to pay
∞ 1.0
to contribute
883 2.7
to chip in
31 3.2

Surface Forms

pick up infinitive
picked up past
picked up past participle
picking up present participle
picks up third person singular

Morphology

pick + up

The police sense 'to take someone into custody' is a pragmatic extension of the basic, transparent meaning 'pick up' = 'collect/take someone' (pick + up). However, the specific legal sense 'arrest' is a specialised interpretation that is not fully predictable from the parts alone and typically requires contextual or cultural knowledge, so it is only partially transparent to learners.

Etymology

Pick up for paying a bill comes from the idea of taking hold of the check or tab and paying it, as if you physically pick it up to take care of it. So it means 'to pay for something, often for someone else'.