pay-day
[pay- 1.]
a. The day on which payment is, or is to be, made; esp. a periodically recurring day (e.g. weekly or monthly) on which wages are, or are arranged to be, paid; on the Stock Exchange, the day on which a transfer of stock has to be paid for.
| 1529 J. Whalley in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. II. 162 The next pay day the whiche shalbe apon Satterdaye come senyght. a 1634 Chapman Rev. for Hon. Plays 1873 III. 289 Where in the Sutlers palace on pay-day We may the precious liquor quaff. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iii. 502 Our Day of Dissolution!—Name it right; 'Tis our great Pay-day. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. xv. 122 He had..been known to be without a shilling for the last week before pay-day. 1897 [see account day]. 1895 [see name-day 3]. 1899 Daily News 27 Feb. 6/4 On the Saturday following a Stock Exchange pay-day. 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin viii. 147 ‘Our ship's company made a bit of a pay-day over it.’ ‘Pay-day! 'Ow d' yer mean?’.. ‘Bettin'!’ 1930 R. Campbell Adamastor 33 We attend the Great Inspection, The Roll-call of the Resurrection, The pay-day of Eternity. 1944 Dylan Thomas Lett. (1966) 262 I'll be up in London..always on payday Fridays. 1972 Daily Tel. 4 July 32/6 She laughed and replied ‘They will have to do. It's the only pair I've got till pay day.’ |
b. Wages; the amount paid to a person on pay-day. Naut.
| 1915 D. W. Bone Broken Stowage 239 We had fondly hoped to be strutting on Liverpool streets with our women folk, a twelve-months' ‘pay day’ in our pockets. 1922 E. O'Neill Anna Christie (1923) ii. 60 'Tis no more drinking and roving about I'd be doing then, but giving my pay-day into her hand and staying at home with her as meek as a lamb. 1932 J. W. Harris Days of Endeavour 20 The Bos'n, his fat pay-day having dwindled away..had sailed. |