payoff

pay·off  (pôf, -f)

n.

1.

a. Full payment of a salary or wages.

b. The time of such payment.

2. Informal

a. A final settlement or reckoning.

b. The climax of a narrative or sequence of events.

3. Final retribution or revenge.

4. Informal A bribe.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	payoff - the final payment of a debt           final payment payment - a sum of money paid or a claim discharged
	2.	payoff - payment made to a person in a position of trust to corrupt his judgment bribe payment - a sum of money paid or a claim discharged hush money - a bribe paid to someone to insure that something is kept secret kickback - a commercial bribe paid by a seller to a purchasing agent in order to induce the agent to enter into the transaction payola - a bribe given to a disc jockey to induce him to promote a particular record soap - money offered as a bribe
	3.	payoff - the income or profit arising from such transactions as the sale of land or other property; "the average return was about 5%" proceeds, take, takings, yield, return, issue income - the financial gain (earned or unearned) accruing over a given period of time economic rent, rent - the return derived from cultivated land in excess of that derived from the poorest land cultivated under similar conditions payback - financial return or reward (especially returns equal to the initial investment)
	4.	payoff - a recompense for worthy acts or retribution for wrongdoing; "the wages of sin is death"; "virtue is its own reward" reward, wages aftermath, consequence - the outcome of an event especially as relative to an individual

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payoff

noun 1. bribe, incentive, cut (informal) payment, sweetener (informal) bung Brit. (informal) inducement, kick-back (informal) backhander (informal) hush money (informal)

noun 2. settlement, payment, reward, payout, recompense

noun 3. (Informal) outcome, result, consequence, conclusion, climax, finale, culmination, the crunch (informal) upshot, moment of truth, clincher (informal) punch line