Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
pay one's dues en · VERB
Pronunciation
Meanings
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To outlay money which is owed as a membership fee or price of admission.
The carrier to Casterbridge came up as Edward stepped into the road, and jumped down from the van to pay toll. . . . The carrier paid his dues.
1871, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in Desperate Remedies:
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(idiomatic) To acquire status or to earn the right to enjoy certain benefits, especially through lengthy experience, hardship, or service to an organization.
Everybody wanna know / Why I'm singing the blues / Yes, I've been around a long time / People, I've paid my dues
1969, B.B. King, D. Clark, “Why I Sing the Blues”, performed by B.B. King:[Josephine Baker] paid her dues in a touring chorus line, and gradually attracted attention for making funny faces, and was rewarded with a respectable third-banana speaking part in the authors' next show, and got some more attention, and so on.
2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic, →ISSN:[S]he spent some time paying her dues at entry-level jobs.
2005 August 7, Jeff Leeds, “A Money Scandal That's Rocking Hip-Hop”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 Jul 2013:He too championed the anti-apartheid cause, paid his dues, had his works banned.
2005 November 6, Donald Morrison, “Still Enough Wrongs To Write”, in Time, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013:
Forms