pay one's last respects

pay one's last respects

1. (intransitive) To visit the place where the remains of a dead person has been prepared for burial or cremation, either as a private act of remembrance or as a public display to others.
   • 1822 The Christian Journal, and Literary Register

     Mr. Thompson performed the service, and I preached a sermon to a crowded congregation of friends and mourners, who came together to pay their last respects to the remains of their friend and benefactor

   • 1827 John Robinson - Archæologia Græca

     The persons that attended funerals were the friends and relations of the deceased, who thought themselves obliged to pay their last respects to the dead.

   • 1851 Charles Dickens - Household Words

     And now to-day you've done your duty by her; paid your last respects to her memory, as I may say, and so you have nothing to reproach yourself with.