To pay for or cover the cost of something, usually an expense shared by a group.
From Old French defrayer, combining de- (away) and frayer (to spend or consume), from Latin frangere. The word originally meant 'to pay off' and entered English around the 14th century.
Defray is one of the few English words that means 'to pay' without any sense of cheating—yet it comes from the same Latin root as 'fragment,' because both involve breaking something apart or using it up.
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