[pay.off] n (1905) 1 a: profit, reward b: retribution
2: the act or occasion of receiving money or material gain esp. as compensation or as a bribe
3: the climax of an incident or enterprise; specif: the denouement of a narrative
4: a decisive fact or factor resolving a situation or bringing about a definitive conclusion
[2]payoff adj (1934): yielding results in the final test: decisive