pay off phrasal verb ( see also ↑ pay )
1 . pay something ↔ off to give someone all the money you owe them:
I’ll pay off all my debts first.
He finally paid his overdraft off.
2 . if something you do pays off, it is successful or has a good result:
Teamwork paid off.
3 . pay somebody ↔ off British English to pay someone their wages and tell them they no longer have a job:
Two hundred workers have been paid off.
4 . pay somebody ↔ off to pay someone not to say anything about something illegal or dishonest
⇨ ↑ payoff (2)