i'll pay him out
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
I'll be a match for him, I'll punish him. They with a foxe-tale him soundly did paye. The King cind Northern Man (1640).
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “i'll pay him out” mean?
I'll be a match for him, I'll punish him. They with a foxe-tale him soundly did paye. The King cind Northern Man (1640).
Is “i'll pay him out” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.