noun

• 1informal A payment made to someone, especially as a bribe or on leaving a job.

  More example sentences

  • ‘he left the company with an £800,000 pay-off’
  • ‘Are the pay-offs and bribes more important than these boys or putting an end to such nonsense?’
  • ‘Board members come and go with huge pay-offs and bonuses no matter how successful.’
  • ‘But, in the absence of unlikely impeachment procedures, a substantial pay-off appears to be the only real option open to the Government to encourage the judge to resign.’
  • ‘His severance pay-off is believed to have been as much as £83,000.’
  • ‘It is reported that this reduction, with all the pay-offs and pensions will cost around USD 1.1 billion.’
  • ‘However, they are still refusing to make the final redundancy payments, pay-offs which range from £16,000 to £28,000 each.’
  • ‘The pay-offs, remember, come on top of transfer fees and the big wages paid to them.’
  • ‘As executives are continuing to work at the group, the issue of pay-offs had not arisen last night.’
  • ‘The man spoke with the radiant serenity of those who have, despite the alternative lures and pay-offs, chosen to be a free subject.’
  • ‘Two opposition politicians confessed to receiving $10,000 pay-offs under the previous Estrada Government.’
  • ‘When all the facts came out, though, those contributions were revealed as little more than window dressing, an early ante up for the real bribery and pay-offs.’
  • ‘We're expecting him back some time next week and all this talk of pay-offs and what have you is incorrect.’
  • ‘Still, as paltry as the pay-offs were, the scandal exposed the hollowness of the ruling party's nationalist rhetoric.’
  • ‘She told delegates times were tough for manufacturing firms and the Government was just as angry as unions about executives receiving huge pay-offs.’
  • ‘No one doubts, however, that it does maintain covert agents and does use monetary pay-offs to gain influence in the country.’
  • ‘Rose is facing an angry backlash from key investors over the £10m pay-offs to departing executives.’
  • ‘If any of these executives are fired, they will expect a big pay-off; but not all pay-offs bring peace of mind.’
  • ‘He announced his intentions over three months ago and said the pay-off had not influenced his decision.’
  • ‘The result is that contracts go to those who guarantee pay-offs to the panel members or their ‘owners’.’
  • ‘The idea that he resigned and gets this huge pay-off is disgraceful.’

  Synonyms

  payment, payout, reward, recompense, consideration

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  1. 1.1The return on investment or on a bet.
     More example sentences

     • ‘the potential pay-off is enormous’
     • ‘Thus, the pay-off on investment was high where there was an expanding labour force with which more capital could be put to work.’
     • ‘The Democrats' strategy also holds a potential pay-off for another reason.’
     • ‘The more sets a player completes, the higher the potential pay-off if they win.’
     • ‘We knew, in other words, that self archiving was a small investment for authors with a large pay-off.’
     • ‘The new operations may have had an immediate pay-off.’
     • ‘You should have improved net return by direct marketing your poultry and also reduce your financial risk with quicker pay-off of the small up front investment required.’
     • ‘Between them, their share options and pension pots are expected to amount to pay-offs of more than £6m each.’
     • ‘Both are expected to receive six-figure pay-offs.’
     • ‘However, the bosses will prosper with fat cash pay-offs and sweet share deals that will see them comfortably well-off well into dotage.’
     • ‘Be advised that larger pools do not automatically result in larger individual pay-offs.’
     • ‘However, if your firm's finances are relatively healthy, getting a bigger pay-off is indeed an option worth exploring.’
     • ‘The stake for their gamble is a high one, perhaps 100 million, and while the pay-off could be massive, the outcome could also be disaster not only for the politicians but for the country they lead.’
     • ‘The best entrepreneurs I know are not concerned about getting credit for their ideas - the financial pay-off is reward enough.’
     • ‘But he adds that the potential payoff is worth the risk.’
     • ‘The latter approach is more difficult, but offers a much bigger pay-off at the end.’
     • ‘Increasing grant support will shift efforts toward current issues, particularly those that have immediate economic pay-offs.’
     • ‘Organizations are assumed to choose a policy that their cognitive representation suggests maximizes their payoff.’
     • ‘The latter approach is more difficult, but offers a much bigger pay-off at the end.’
     • ‘Seeing this movie is indeed a risk, but one with extraordinary pay-offs.’
     • ‘So the question becomes: is the payoff worth the effort?’
     • ‘The real payoff in present terms is the spinoff technology that will be used for future lunar and interplanetary missions.’
     Synonyms

     return, return on investment, yield, payback, reward, profit, gain, income, revenue, interest, dividend, percentage

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  2. 1.2A final outcome or result.
     More example sentences

     • ‘the restructuring of the last few years was supposed to have a big pay-off’
     • ‘What will be broadcast this weekend is one of his favourites from a year or two back, with an updated introduction and a final pay-off.’
     • ‘Which is a shame, because the final pay-off is worthwhile, and despite all the frustrations I did enjoy it.’
     • ‘Working towards daily bliss, a little at a time, can have big pay-offs in terms of lasting beauty that stems from deep within you.’
     • ‘Since then, the group has undertaken projects with big pay-offs for patients, nurses, even the public.’
     • ‘But the biggest pay-off of her improved chemistry grade was her mother getting off her back.’
     • ‘Research need not always have a direct pay-off in terms of influencing policy or practice directly.’
     • ‘Did learning the moves have any big pay-off for him in real-life, to help him seduce his own wife?’
     • ‘So what happens in the final scene isn't really a pay-off.’
     • ‘Playing a game boils down to performing an action: this action is based on a strategy that is chosen after the players consider the pay-offs.’
     • ‘These films also maintain a presence of God, fate, and karmic pay-offs for the hero's eventual victory.’
     • ‘The pay-off comes when the table is finally returned to the antique dealer who gets what might be called her just dessert.’
     • ‘As long as he increases his heart-rate and keeps it that way for 30 to 40 minutes, the pay-off over time will be enormous.’
     • ‘Splitting water to produce molecular oxygen and molecular hydrogen has a big potential payoff.’
     • ‘Nonetheless, the software delivers the expected payoff.’
     • ‘He built the tenderness up slowly and carefully, until its consummation delivered a powerful emotional payoff.’
     Synonyms

     outcome, denouement, culmination, conclusion, development, result, consequence, out-turn, end result, upshot, aftermath

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