pay one's last respects

pay one's last respects (third-person singular simple present pays one's last respects, present participle paying one's last respects, simple past and past participle paid one's last respects)

1. (intransitive) To visit the place where the remains of a dead person has been prepared for burial or cremation, either as a private act of remembrance or as a public display to others.
   • 1822 The Christian Journal, and Literary Register

     Mr. Thompson performed the service, and I preached a sermon to a crowded congregation of friends and mourners, who came together to pay their last respects to the remains of their friend and benefactor

   • 1827, John Robinson, Archæologia Græca:

     The persons that attended funerals were the friends and relations of the deceased, who thought themselves obliged to pay their last respects to the dead.

   • 1851, Charles Dickens, Household Words:

     And now to-day you've done your duty by her; paid your last respects to her memory, as I may say, and so you have nothing to reproach yourself with.