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Glite Dictionary
to put paid to

to put paid to

1 7.7
To stop plans or activities from happening
  • phrasal verb
  • UK
translation icon : poner fin a
  • The heavy rain put paid to our plans for a picnic in the park.

Examples

  • A new wave of immigrants had long since put paid to the argument that there was a shortage of entry-level work available.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Thunder and lightning put paid to the floodlights, as the overcast Olimpico was plunged into darkness in the opening minutes.

    Blog text (8)

  • And that put paid to it.

    Pride & Prejudice (2005)

  • But you and your mysterious friend put paid to that, so well done, you.

    The Gentlemen (2020)

  • The robbery put paid to that idea.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • As such, this divisiveness has likely, and sadly, put paid to the film's chances in most of the big-ticket Oscar races.

    Blog text (6)

  • A year to the day after the eviction of Occupy Wall Street, the Rolling Jubilee—in conjunction with Occupy Sandy—put paid to the notion that it all ended on that day last year.

    Blog text (29)

  • The unexpected merger put paid to the company's long-standing competition.

  • Her sudden resignation put paid to any further discussions about a promotion.

Synonyms

to put an end to
vsto put paid to
131 3.0

To make something stop completely

ends or prevents things without stressing definite finality
to pull the plug
vsto put paid to
87 5.5

To stop something from going on by removing support like money

ends or prevents without implying removal of support or resources
to put a stop to
vsto put paid to
62 3.0

To end something so it no longer happens

also covers stopping before it starts as prevention
to put a full stop
vsto put paid to
  • UK
1 3.6

End something completely so it does not continue

ends or prevents but may not imply total absolute cessation

Antonyms

to continue
∞ 1.0

To keep doing something without stopping

to perpetuate
114 6.5

Make a bad situation or idea continue when it should stop

How Final

to kill off
44 4.8
to put paid to
  • UK
1 7.7
to halt
206 2.4
to interrupt
909 2.5
to delay
562 1.4

Surface Forms

put paid to infinitive
putting paid to present participle
puts paid to third person singular
put paid to past
put paid to past participle

Morphology

put + paid + to

The meaning 'to bring something to an end' cannot be directly derived from the literal constituents 'put' + 'paid' + 'to'—'paid' does not contribute a transparent sense of termination and the construction is idiomatic. This is a historically entrenched British idiom with no straightforward compositional logic and is unlikely to be predictable for a B1 learner who only knows the individual words.

Etymology

Put paid to may come from the old habit of stamping a bill PAID to show the debt was finished. Once a bill was marked like that, the matter was over, so the phrase now means 'to bring something to an end' or 'stop'.