pick up the tab

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pick up the tab (third-person singular simple present picks up the tab, present participle picking up the tab, simple past and past participle picked up the tab)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic, chiefly US) To accept a bill and pay it, especially at a bar or restaurant.
   • 2014 January 30, Seth Kugel, “Wintertime Bargains in Budapest”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     When the bill came to just 33,000 forints, I did something very out of character: I picked up the tab. It blew the budget for the day, but felt great.

   • 2020 March 25, Philip Haigh, “Analysis: Where the money comes from... and where it goes”, in Rail, page 34:

     Meanwhile, the taxpayer picked up the tab for over 50% of track and train costs at Northern, Merseyrail and the Transport for Wales rail operation.

   • 2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR‎^[2]:

     A stranger picked up the tab for the coffee order of the next customer in the drive-through line at a Tim Hortons coffeehouse in Winnipeg, Canada. And that customer picked up the tab of the person behind him.

• “pick up the tab”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.