Definition of "pay off"

pay off

verb
third-person singular simple present pays off, present participle paying off, simple past and past participle paid off
1. (transitive, informal) To bribe, especially to deter oversight.
  Quotations
  I had to pay off the judge to get my license back.
  1979, Al Greenwood, Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games
2. (intransitive) To become worthwhile; to produce a net benefit.
  Quotations
  Wenger sent on Cesc Fabregas and Van Persie to try to finish Leeds off and with 14 minutes left the switch paid off as the Spaniard sent Bendtner away down the right and his wonderful curling cross was headed in by Van Persie at the far post.
  2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC‎
3. (transitive) To pay back; to repay.
  Quotations
  What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.
  2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World/Ballantine Books, page 27
4. (transitive) To pay back (repay, pay off) the entirety of a loan, thereby effecting the release of a lien on.
5. (nautical) To fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.