He clearly says 'put pay'. It's an error. It should be, as you have said, 'put paid'.

FYI, as an American (Ohio), I've never heard of either phrasing. Astralbee's answer explains it, but we would not say that phrase and not know what it means. We would say end, terminate, or wipe-out instead in your original example, so it seems to be an idiom of regional use.

@UnhandledExcepSean Could I just point out that Britain is not a "region" - it is a country, and the one where the English language had its origins. The expression "put paid to" is widely understood throughout the English-speaking world - the American dictionary, Merriam Webster, listing it - while marking it as "chiefly British". Clearly it belongs to the vast complement of English which is not in extensive use by the American public - though I think that the more literate and widely-read sections of American society will clearly appreciate its meaning.

@UnhandledExcepSean And yes, "end", "wipe-out", and "terminate" are all perfectly well understood and in everyday use in Britain.

@WS2 To be pedantic, and surely you know this, but: Britain is not a country — it might be short for the island of Great Britain, which constitutes 86% of the area (94% if nearby smaller islands are included) and 90% of the population (97% with nearby smaller islands) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland :). Britain might be used as a shorthand for the United Kingdom, but some people in Northern Ireland would probably not like this use.

@gerrit By all means be pedantic if you must. It is a universal privilege.

@gerrit "Britain" has been used as shorthand for the the UK for generations. We are after all British and not "United Kingdomers".

@JackAidley It has, but this is not without controversy. Are people in Northern Ireland British?

@gerrit: Those that choose to be are, as per the Good Friday agreement.

This question had me on tender hooks for a while, but the answer seems to be a damp squid.

@DaveGremlin I'm assuming the misquotes are deliberate, in which case hilarious!

@WS2 Not to denigrate Britain, but that is a region of the world just as the USA is a region. oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=region You seem to take my comment as an attack on British English, but it was simply a comment that Americans don't widely use that phrase. The Google ngram site shows it is about five times more common in usage in British English and became a used phrase much earlier than it was in the US. This might be useful information for people running across this thread in the future.

@Alan That kind of misheard idiom is called an "eggcorn". Rob Words had a fun video on them on YouTube if that's your kind of thing: youtube.com/watch?v=F12LSAbos7A

American here, and yeah, that phrase is pretty much nonsense to me. I'm sure some Americans know it but only the literate ones who reed they're bookz.

The USA has about 33% of the population of America, about 23% of the land area of America, and the main language spoken in the USA is the second most widely spoken in America. Talking as if a region of a place is the whole place is parochialism.

OP, it was just a mistake why is this question not closed ?

I hear the expression "put paid to" all the time in the USA. I just asked the three other people in this room (ie, everyday yanks, here in the South) if they knew the expression and they all looked at me as if I was strange since of course they knew it.

@JackAidley and others IMO that's not an eggcorn. At the doctor's if I mispronounce/misunderstand "needle" as "noodle" or "meddle", that is not an eggcorn. If I mispronounce it as "nettle" - that's an eggcorn. (A nettle is sort of like a needle. The other words are meaningless mishearings.) An eggcorn is the same as a "folk etymology".

As @WS2 says ... I just went in the other part of the building and asked FOUR 100% regular adult yanks if they knew the phrase "put paid to", and, again, they all looked at me as if I was strange since of course they knew it.

@Fattie, both "tender hooks" and "damp squid" are, indeed, eggcorns.

@Fattie - Why does the right answer being that the usage was a mistake suggest that a question asking why the usage was employed should be closed? I think it's a very good question.

@Fattie Now we know that apparently the American south is one of the regions where it's used. I think I'd get murdered in some parts of the South if I called them yanks though:)

@WS2 'The expression "put paid to" is widely understood throughout the English-speaking world' -- Just want to mention I'm Canadian and also never heard it.

@tell "America" means the USA in casual speech. If your native language is Spanish, then what you call "America", we call "the Americas" (north and south). For me, I'd be annoyed if you called me "American", cause I'm from Canada, not the US.

Born in Connecticut, never heard this expression. Time to work on not being illiterate I guess.

@wjandrea The examples of its use include quotations from the Manitoba Free Press of 1930.

Just to add, I'm from the Western US, and I've never heard the phrase