Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hanygeorge38]

Hello Teachers,

i just came across this idiom when using Cobuild dictionary for idioms but the example they used i did
not understand it completly and need your assistance
and clarification


the examople is :-

Bucher put paid to that. he below out whole operation out of the water.


what is meant by put paid and the whole example.

thanks in advance
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hany

[dduck]

It's possible to blow a boat out of the water with a torpedo, literally! And it's also possible to use this expression figuratively when talking about ideas, plans, ambitions and the like, for example.

My boss blew my plans out of the water when he asked me to work over the holidays.

Iain
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--Chinese Proverb

[bud]

Regarding "put paid," I've never heard that before. It seems pretty clear, though. It used to be, before computers, that you might sometimes pay a bill in person. The company representative would take a stamp, press it into an inkpad, and then stamp your bill. The result was the word "PAID" stamped onto your bill, usually in big, red block letters. So to "put paid" to something would probably mean "to put an end" to it, or more simply, "to end" it. It also seems to give a sense of finality to it in that there is no possibility of reversing it.

[Corey]

paid put - took care of

Corey
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