pan out

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

1. transitiveTo separate and recover (valuable minerals) by swirling dirt or crushed rock in a pan of water, in the manner of a traditional prospector seeking gold.

   His father came out in '49 with the gold rush crowd, panned out a good pile, and then, liking the life—San Francisco was a gay little burg those days—opened one of the crack gambling houses down on the Old Plaza.

   1919, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 11, in The Avalanche

   1 more example

   On the Saturday holidays in summer-time we used to borrow skiffs whose owners were not present and go down the river three miles to the cave hollow (Missourian for "valley"), and there we staked out claims and pretended to dig gold, panning out half a dollar a day at first.

   1907, Mark Twain, chapter 23, in Chapters from My Autobiography

2. figurativelyintransitiveTo proceed according to plan; to result or end up with an acceptable outcome or in an acceptable form.

   We'll see what pans out from the arbitration process.

   5 more examples

   My hopes for a white Christmas didn't pan out this year.

   Many a pretty girl I have seen in my time, who didn't pan out according to specifications when I finally met her.

   1917, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 3, in Bab: A Sub-Deb

   That was just a theory! There's a lot of theories that didn't pan out: lone gunman, communism, geometry…

   1998, “The One With Rachel's Crush”, in Friends, spoken by Joey Tribbiani

   The China market is finally panning out, thanks to the voracious consumerism of the middle class.

   2004 October 17, Matthew Forney, “Who's Getting It Right?”, in Time

   "It is anybody's guess how this is going to pan out. The Government will have even more control of the railway than before, with no incentive to innovate. [...]"

   2020 July 29, “Carne: "Treasury has its hands on the railway joystick already"”, in Rail, page 9

   Synonyms: shape up, work out

3. IrelandintransitiveslangTo fall asleep.