What does “pay you out” mean?
I followed the following passage of text in one of the original Thomas the Tank Engine stories, and realised there was a phrase in there that I didn’t understand.
“Be careful with the coaches, James” said Edward, “they don’t like being bumped.” Trucks are noisy; they need to be bumped and taught to behave, but coaches get cross and will pay you out. ”
James the Red Engine, Rev W. Awdry (1848)
What are the benefits of being a female professor?
This means ‘take revenge’, as in this quote from William Thackeray in 1849: ‘You see if I don’t pay you out after school—you sneak, you.’ It was still being used even through to the twentieth century. Is the title appropriate in the work of the Rev. A.P.J.R. Awdry, but seems to be in decline, as this ngram shows (subject to the usual cautions about nGrams).
What is it anyway, since it’s a rather “dated” form that would normally be expressed today as pay you back, meaning retaliate
and settle the score.
