pay attention

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pay attention (third-person singular simple present pays attention, present participle paying attention, simple past and past participle paid attention)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To attend; to be attentive; to focus one's attention.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I was on my way to the door, but all at once, through the fog in my head, I began to sight one reef that I hadn't paid any attention to afore.

   Please pay attention to the danger signs.

• (to attend): give heed, pay heed, pick up what someone is putting down, take heed