foot the bill

To pay for something. I hope the production company is footing the bill for all of this air travel. The office will foot the bill for your trip, so make sure to use your company credit card. No, I refuse to foot the bill for all these kids! Where are their parents?

See also: bill, foot

foot the bill (for something)

Fig. to pay for something; to pay for a bill. My boss took me out for lunch and the company footed the bill. You paid for dinner last time. Let me foot the bill for lunch today.

See also: bill, foot

foot the bill

Pay the bill, settle the accounts, as in The bride's father was resigned to footing the bill for the wedding. This expression uses foot in the sense of "add up and put the total at the foot, or bottom, of an account." [Colloquial; early 1800s]

See also: bill, foot

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

foot the bill

COMMON If you foot the bill for something, you pay for it. Police will have to foot the bill for the damage to both cars. If the insurance industry were to foot the entire bill for pollution, it would bankrupt it. Note: This expression may come from the practice of someone paying a bill and signing it at the bottom, or `foot'.

See also: bill, foot

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

foot the bill

be responsible for paying for something.

See also: bill, foot

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

foot the ˈbill (for something)

be responsible for paying the cost of something: The local council will have to foot the bill for damage done to the roads in last years’s floods.

See also: bill, foot

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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References in periodicals archive

She also wanted them to foot the bill for a five star hotel," my mole tells me.

RADAR: First class Beyonce

"Clearly we don't think it's right that the taxpayer in Strathclyde, or indeed Scotland, should foot the bill for another agency's inability to deliver a service."

WE'LL MAKE THE HOME OFFICE PAY

ANGRY: MP Frank Cook said the MoD should foot the bill for scrapping TS Kellington

Cook calls on MoD for cash

The cost is put at a staggering pounds 650,000 a year - described by Mr Knapfler as "probably the most expensive adult care package in the country" - and now each council is claiming the other should foot the bill.

Councils in battle over care package; Wrangle over pounds 660k annual bill

It really does show the contempt our cabinet members have for the people who foot the bill.

Letter: Cabinet contempt

So far the government has refused to foot the bill for extra police cover.

pounds 10m police bill probe

But network provider Orange has told the 20-year-old Uwic business student, originally from Milford Haven, he will have to foot the bill because it took him almost a day to report the theft.

Orange takes hard line

More than a quarter of those questioned said they had claimed back money spent on fuel for personal use and 10% confessed to letting their firms foot the bill for food and drink buys.

Miles apart

Grain producers have to foot the bill for the delays, which in the case of a Panamax-class boat costs $40,000 a day.

Water way: new projects on the Parana River will cement Argentina's position as a top global grain exporter

David Moore, head of tax, said: 'Holidaymakers could be the ones who foot the bill for these additional costs, potentially taking the heat off tour operators who have priced holidays on the basis of a 15-state EU.'

Extra VAT on EU holidays

And now the club are facing a massive struggle to foot the bill following attempts by leading Premiership chairmen to stop the Premier League handing over almost pounds 5m in unpaid parachute payments.

FOOTBALL: FOXES FACING pounds 4.5m PAY BILL

The Scottish Executive will help foot the bill for the "Dutch wall" from Albert Pier to the old swimming pool from an pounds 11.8million budget for flood prevention schemes.

5ft wall to beat floods

The Consumers' Association said shareholders should be forced to foot the bill for redress payments, rather than the money being taken out of the firm's withprofits fund.

Money: Call for change in use of funds for compensation

Insurance coverage has become the brass ring of the alternative medicine movement, whose advocates believe demand for their services would skyrocket if more private or federal insurers were willing to foot the bill.

Sins of commission

While Regent is free to strengthen and expand its religious activities, it should not be free to ask the state to help foot the bill. We're disappointed with today's decision."

Virginia Supreme Court Approves Bonds For Regent University