Idiom:  To Pick Up the
Tab; used as a verb.

First Example:  

“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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