pay debt

pay one's debt (to society)

Cliché to serve a sentence for a crime, usually in prison. The judge said that Mr. Simpson had to pay his debt to society. Mr. Brown paid his debt in state prison.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Botros	-	Arabic, Coptic
Gomer	GO-mər (English)	Biblical
Ileana	-	Romanian, Spanish, Italian
Widad	-	Arabic
Daria	DAHR-yah (Italian, Polish, Romanian), DAHR-ee-ə (English), DER-ee-ə (English), DAR-ee-ə (English)	Italian, Polish, Romanian, English, Croatian, Late Greek (Latinized)
Tzeitel	-	Yiddish