pan1

 
Pronunciation: /pan/

noun

  • 1a metal container used for cooking food in: heat the olive oil in a heavy pan
  • an amount of something contained in a pan: a pan of hot water
  • 2a bowl or other container, in particular:
  • a bowl fitted at either end of a pair of scales: she sifted flour on to the wide brass pan of the scales
  • British the bowl of a toilet: peroxide is what they put down the lavatory to disinfect the pan
  • a large container used in a technical or manufacturing process for subjecting a material to heat or a mechanical or chemical process.
  • a steel drum.
  • a shallow bowl in which gold is separated from gravel and mud by agitation and washing: he washed the gold-free surface gravel out over the rim of the pan
  • a part of the lock that held the priming in old types of gun: prime the pan, pour the powder down the barrel, then ram in the cartridge’s paper and ball
  • 3a hard stratum of compacted soil: heavy spikes can be useful in breaking a surface pan in grassland
  • 4a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated.
  • 5US informal a person’s face.

verb (pans, panning, panned)

[with object]
  • 1 informal criticize severely: the movie was panned by the critics
  • 2wash gravel in a pan to separate out (gold): the old-timers panned gold [no object]: prospectors panned for gold in the Yukon
  • [no object] (pan out) (of gravel) yield gold.

Phrases

go down the pan

British informal fail utterly: the company went down the pan last year

Phrasal Verbs

pan out

end up; conclude: he’s happy with the way the deal panned out
turn out well: Harold’s idea had been a good one even if it hadn’t panned out

Derivatives

panful

noun (plural panfuls)

pan-like

adjective

Origin:

Old English panne, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch pan, German Pfanne, perhaps based on Latin patina 'dish'