pan

plural pans · humorous plural pen

1. A wide, flat receptacle used around the house, especially for cooking.

   Synonyms: frying pan, skillet, cookie sheet, tin

2. The contents of such a receptacle.
3. A cylindrical receptacle about as tall as it is wide, with one long handle, usually made of metal, used for cooking in the home.

   Synonyms: saucepan

4. IrelandA deep plastic receptacle, used for washing or food preparation; a basin.
5. A wide receptacle in which gold grains are separated from gravel by washing the contents with water.
6. An expanse of level land located in a depression, especially
   1. geographyA pond or lake, considered as the expanse of land upon which the water sits.
   2. South AfricaespeciallygeographyA dry lake or playa, especially a salt flat.
   3. South AfricageographySynonym of playa lake: a temporary pond or lake in a playa.

      Synonyms: playa lake

   4. abbreviationellipsisgeographyEllipsis of salt pan: a flat artificial pond used for collecting minerals from evaporated water.
7. abbreviationellipsisgeographyEllipsis of hardpan: a hard substrate such as is formed in pans.
8. South AfricaobsoletegeographySynonym of pipe: a channel for lava within a volcano; the cylindrical remains of such channels.

   Synonyms: pipe

9. Strong adverse criticism.

   The notices The Gallery received, while hardly pans, were only mixed.

   1977 August 20, Robert Etherington, “John Horne Burns and His Enemies”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 10

10. IrelandA loaf of bread; a pan-loaf.First known use 1970s
11. obsoleteThe chamber pot in a close stool; (now) the base of a toilet, consisting of the bowl and its support.

    Synonyms: chamber pot, toilet

12. A bedpan.

    1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure She yanks the pan out from under me & it spills all over the bed. Then she's got to change the sheets! Unreal.

13. slangA human face, a mug.

    Dave and I have parted company, and I hope I never see his junky pan again.

    1993, William S. Burroughs, edited by Oliver Harris, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, →ISBN, page 92

    2 more examples

    "He's a foreign-looking guy with thinnish black hair and a meaty sort of pan."

    1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 121

    This was the kind of operator who would tell you to be there at nine sharp and if you weren't sitting quietly with a pleased smile on your pan when he floated in two hours later on a double Gibson, he would have a paroxysm of outraged executive ability […].

    1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 103

14. businessThe bottom flat part of a roofing panel that is between the ribs of the panel.
15. A closed vessel for boiling or evaporating as part of manufacture; a vacuum pan.
16. engineeringThe part of a matchlock, flintlock, or wheellock firearm that holds the priming.

    Holonym: firearm

    3 more examples

    flash in the pan

    […] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […]

    1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, pages 95–96

    And he […] glared on the cold pistols that hung before him—ready for anything. And he took down one with a snatch and weighed it in his hand, and fell to thinking again; and, as he did, kept opening and shutting the pan with a snap, […]

    1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

    Synonyms: flash pan, priming pan

17. The skull, considered as a vessel containing the brain; the brainpan.
18. figurativelyThe brain, seen as one's intellect.

    14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Friar's Tale, Unto the devil rough and black of hue Give I thy body and my pan also."

19. businessA recess, or bed, for the leaf of a hinge.
20. abbreviationellipsisentertainmentEllipsis of steelpan.

    The steel band transforms the people who play in it and dance to it, and fosters links between them. […] He learned to play the pan and filled in for absent members.

    2009, Pnina Werbner, Black and Ethnic Leaderships, page 122

present singular third person pans · participle present panning · participle past panned · past panned

1. transitiveTo wash in a pan (of earth, sand etc. when searching for gold).

   We […] witnessed the process of cleaning up and panning out, which is the last process of separating the pure gold from the fine dirt and black sand.

   1875, William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs

2. transitiveTo disparage; to belittle; to put down; to harshly criticize, especially a work (book, movie, etc.)

   Matt Damon, who compared the advent of virtual money to the development of aviation and spaceflight in a critically panned but widely seen Crypto.com ad last year, did not respond to requests to weigh in.

   2022 May 17, Tiffany Hsu, “All Those Celebrities Pushing Crypto Are Not So Vocal Now”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: admonish, animadvert, bash, bawl out, tilt, clobber, cannonade, slash

3. intransitiveto pan outTo turn out well; to be successful.
4. informaltransitiveTo beat one's opposition convincingly.

present singular third person pans · participle present panning · participle past panned · past panned

1. intransitive(of a camera) To turn horizontally.

   Later today in Finsbury Park, the cameras would spend hours panning across 35,000 festivalgoers in search of pickpockets, drunken brawlers, and other assorted agents of petty mischief.

   2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2018

2. intransitiveartsTo move the camera lens angle while continuing to expose the film, enabling a contiguous view and enrichment of context. In still-photography large-group portraits the film usually remains on a horizontal fixed plane as the lens and/or the film holder moves to expose the film laterally. The resulting image may extend a short distance laterally or as great as 360° from the point where the film first began to be exposed.

   As one can only "pan" at 90 deg. to the direction of movement of the subject, a compromise has to be reached when shooting at more conventional angles between a shutter speed high enough to arrest the forward movement of the subject and one low enough to blur the valve motion and wheels.

   1957 January 28, A. M. Ross, “Letters to the Editor: Impressions of Speed”, in Railway Magazine, page 60

3. intransitiveimagingTo shift an image relative to the display window without changing the viewing scale.
4. transitivesound engineeringTo spread a sound signal into a new stereo or multichannel sound field, typically giving the impression that it is moving across the sound stage.
5. intransitivesound engineering(of a sound) To move in the multichannel sound field.

plural pans

1. A sequence in a film in which the camera pans over an area.

   For instance, in the film Dances with Wolves, a pan of an uninhabited landscape contrasts the gruesome beginning footage that depicts the carnage of war.

   2013, Monle Lee, Carla Johnson, Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective, page 197

1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of paan.

present singular third person pans · participle present panning · participle past panned · past panned

1. To join or fit together; to unite.

   31 May 1884, Leeds Mercury Pan it down—press an article into its proper place

   1 more example

   The plants can either be sold individually in the 3 inch pots as Valentine favors , or several may be panned together in larger pots

   1963, Grower Talks

plural pans

1. A part; a portion.
2. fortificationsThe distance comprised between the angle of the epaule and the flanked angle.
3. A leaf of gold or silver.

1. informalnot comparablePansexual or panromantic.

   A similar experience is shared by individuals who identify their sexuality as pan, bi or queer.

   2013, Megan Hertner, "Understanding Gender and Sexuality", Grapevine (Huron University College), December 2013, page 19

   2 more examples

   When she publicly acknowledged that she is pan, it educated citizens near and far on what that sexuality meant and the importance of being proud of who you are.

   2012 December 28, Anna Waugh, “Texas got a pansexual legislator”, in Dallas Voice, volume 29, number 33, page 9

   Another anonymous pansexual disclosed, "Sometimes I feel really left out because I'm pan. […] "

   2013, Alejandra Rodriguez, "Isn't That Bisexual?", Outwrite, Fall 2013, page 7

plural pans

1. abbreviationclippinginformalrail transportClipping of pantograph.

   Synonyms: panto

1. Greekhuman sciencesGreek god of nature, often visualized as half goat and half man playing pipes.

   Near-synonyms: Faunus, Pales (Roman counterparts, not identical)

   Synonyms: Faunus, Pales

2. astronomyAn inner moon of the planet Saturn, notable for its equatorial ridge.

plural Pans

1. A surname.

plural Pans

1. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Peter Pan.

1. A suburb of Newport, Isle of Wight, England (OS grid ref SZ5088).

1. UKobsoleteslangThe workhouse in St Pancras, London.

1. abbreviationhuman sciencesAbbreviation of Proto-Austronesian.

plural PANs

1. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of personal area network.
2. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of primary account number.
3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablechemistryInitialism of peroxyacetyl nitrate.
4. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablechemistryInitialism of phenylacetonitrile.

   Synonyms: benzeneacetonitrile, benzylcyanide

5. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablechemistryInitialism of polyacrylonitrile.