to pay the bills
74
2.3
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
pagar las cuentas
- I took on a part-time job to pay the bills while finishing my studies.
- the blues don't pay the bills
Right now, many people can't even pay the bills, feed their kids.
- Right now, many people can't even pay the bills, feed their kids.
- What are you going to have that pays the bills, bread and butter every week?
- Dad keeps a roof over our head, Dad pays the bills, that kind of thing.
- You know, I think that if he's paying the bills, he's living below his means.
- Most of us need to work and pay the bills.
- And it's one of those jobs that I just did to pay the bills alongside running my businesses.
- Mainly it's over debts and drugs and stuff where they can't pay the bills or whatever.
- So you get to say, Brooke, because you pay the bills.
- I just want to get through and and pay the bills, right?
- So they said charge us a little bit that'll pay the bills.
- My commercials got to pay the bills, guys, you know?
- And you're like, OK, who's paying the bills?
- I'm OK for him, you know, paying the bills.
- So it was just kind of a way of paying the bills.
Examples
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You know, a majority of writers are taking jobs that they need to take to pay the bills, and that's just what it is.
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So I spent that year just trying to pay the bills and figure that out.
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So that helped to pay the bills and costs of being in this business.
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And it's one of those jobs that I just did to pay the bills alongside running my businesses.
-
As long as I pay the bills, I do what I want at this table.
-
And he had to work all the time to pay the bills.
Fiction book (2001) -
You can barely pay the bills around here.
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But I'm just doing that to pay the bills.
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My motivation is substantial: we need that 20 percent to pay the bills.
Academic text (2009) -
I mean, at least here we have a house and I've got a job that pays the bills.
Synonyms
56
3.5
To live on a small amount of money
29
5.3
To pay for something, often when it is expensive or unexpected
8
7.9
To pay part or all of someone's costs
Antonyms
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'pay' (transfer money) with 'bill' (money owed/expense); the phrase literally means to settle one’s bills and thus provide money for regular expenses. The definite article is functionally neutral here and the notion of paying bills as covering expenses is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
The phrase pay the bills comes from the image of paper bills, letters that ask for money, that you pay each month so a home keeps running. So, it now means 'to provide enough money for regular expenses'.