foot the bill

foot the bill idiom
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]

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.

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