paycheck

• pay check, paycheque, pay cheque

From pay (“wages or salary”) + check (“means of payment”).

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪ.t͡ʃɛk/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

paycheck (plural paychecks)

1. (US) Money received on payday as payment for work performed.

   Coordinate term: payslip

   He was delighted after getting his first paycheck, but subsequently blew it all on the horses.

   • 1991, Daniel Clowes, Art School Confidential:

     The teachers are not there to help you. Most oft them are still freelancers and the last thing they want is more competition. They are there because they need a steady paycheck and they hope to score some pussy!

   • 2001, “Because I Got High”, in Because I Got High, performed by Afroman:

     They took my whole paycheck and I know why / 'Cause I got high, 'cause I got high

   • 2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:

     With the help of some low-end boosting, Dinklage musters a decent amount of kid-appropriate menace—although he never does explain his gift for finding chunks of ice shaped like pirate ships—but Romano and Leary mainly sound bored, droning through their lines as if they’re simultaneously texting the contractors building the additions on their houses funded by their fat sequel paychecks.

   • 2019, “Super Sad Generation”, performed by Arlo Parks:

     We're a super sad generation / Killing time and losing our paychecks

• live paycheck to paycheck

• paycheck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia