pay one's dues
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to endure difficulties or pay a price to achieve something
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
chịu đựng khó khăn hoặc trả giá để đạt được điều gì đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: paying monetary debts
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She paid her dues as a young lawyer before becoming a judge
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pay one's dues” mean?
to endure difficulties or pay a price to achieve something Literally: paying monetary debts
Is “pay one's dues” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.