Idiom: To Pick Up the Tab; used as a verb.
“Sam had invited Alice to an expensive restaurant for dinner. Since this was their first date together, Sam had picked up the tab for the night.”
Meaning: To Pick Up the Tab means to pay for the cost of something, usually a meal. In this example, since Sam had invited Alice out on a date, it is customary in most Western societies for men to pay for the first meal of a date. This idiom can apply to any situation where somebody intends to pay for the full price of a meal. This idiom is used as a verb in this example.
This idiom is from the book "Everyday Idioms for Reference and Practice – Book One," which is used as the primary textbook in LSI’s Intermediate Conversation classes.
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