pay off vs grease one's palms

pay off and grease one's palms both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
pay off	No	No	Yes	No
grease one's palms	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, grease one's palms is a hypernym of pay off; that is, grease one's palms is a word with a broader meaning than pay off:

pay off: pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor
grease one's palms: make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence

Other hypernyms of pay off include bribe, buy, corrupt.

pay off (verb)	grease one's palms (verb)
take vengeance on or get even	make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence
eliminate by paying off (debts)
pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor
yield a profit or result
pay off (loans or promissory notes)
do or give something to somebody in return