you can put paid to that
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
You can treat it as finished, it's all over, done with. A phrase from the counting-house; when "Paid" is put to an account it is finished with.
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 “you can put paid to that” mean?
You can treat it as finished, it's all over, done with. A phrase from the counting-house; when "Paid" is put to an account it is finished with.
Is “you can put paid to that” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.