panic

comparative more panic · superlative most panic · alternative obsolete panick

1. Greekarchaichuman sciencesAlternative letter-case form of Panic (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).

   Synonyms: Pandean, panical

2. by extension (see the etymology)Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.

   Suſpicion, with Sedition join'd, are near; And Rumors rais'd, and Murmurs mix'd, and Panique Fear.

   1700, [John] Dryden, “The Twelfth Book of Ovid his Metamorphoses, Wholly Translated”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 422

   5 more examples

   All things were there in a diſordered confuſion, and in a confuſed furie, vntill ſuch time as by prayers and ſacrifices they had appeaſed the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the P[a]nike terror.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Feare”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 28

   So long as Epaminondas was captaine general of the Thebans, there was never ſeene in his campe any of theſe ſudden fooliſh frights, without any certeine cauſe, which they call Panique Terrores.

   1603, Plutarch, “The Apophthegmes or Notable Sayings of Kings, Princes and Great Captains”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 425

   But why dwell I ſo intolerable long about Tolerations, I hope my feares are but panick, againſt which I have a double cordiall.

   1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 11

   [L]ike a couragious Captain does all he can to imbody his Army; he perſwades, threats, oppoſes, and cries aloud, that albeit Bickermanſe was ſlain yet He was living; yea that many as good Officers as Bickermanſe were in the Army; But in vain; for ſuch was their diſorder and pannick fear, that impoſſible it was to revoke them: […]

   1677, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Africa, and Asia the Great. […], 4th edition, London: […] R. Everingham, for R. Scot, T. Basset, J[ohn] Wright, and R. Chiswell, →OCLC, page 81

   At that moment a flight of birds passed close overhead, and at the whirr of their wings a panic fear seized her.

   1978, Lawrence Durrell, “Lord Galen’s Farewell”, in Livia: Or Buried Alive […] (The Avignon Quintet; 2), London; Boston, Mass.: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 239

   Synonyms: panical

3. by extension (see the etymology)Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.

   No Dangers threatned, but they ſmil'd to meet The pannick French-men trembling at their Feet.

   1705, [Daniel Defoe], The D[utch] Deputies. A Satyr, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 5

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   [H]e perceived how that many women followed his ſouldiers, ſome being their wives, and ſome wanting nothing to make them ſo but marriage, […] The King coming to a great river, after his men and the wagons were paſſed over, cauſed the bridge to be broken down, hoping ſo to be rid of theſe feminine impediments; but they on a ſudden liſt up a panick ſhrick which pierced the skies, and the ſouldiers hearts on the other ſide of the river, who inſtantly vowed not to ſtirre a foot farther, except with baggage, and that the women might be fetch'd over, which was done accordingly.

   1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Life of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book IV, paragraph 5, page 332

plural panics

1. uncountableOverwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.

   It's Christmas at ground zero There's panic in the crowd We can dodge debris While we trim the tree Underneath a mushroom cloud

   1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!

   4 more examples

   She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

   1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1

   There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 125

   Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   1963, Margery Allingham, “Meeting Point”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 232

   With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hobhouse Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic, stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.

   1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus, New York, N.Y.: Soho Press, →ISBN, page 33

2. abbreviationcountableellipsiscomputingEllipsis of kernel panic (“on Unix-derived operating systems: an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal error”); (by extension) any computer system crash.

   If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, reboot, and panic as it attempts to reload the faulty driver every time it reboots after panic.

   2010, Solaris system engineers, “Managing Devices”, in Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials (Solaris System Administration Series), Santa Clara, Calif.: Sun Microsystems Press, →ISBN, section 9.3.4.2 (Avoiding Recurring Panic)

3. countablebusinessA rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.

   "I thought you inherited your money." "I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war."

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 5, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 91

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   "There is sort of a panic going on, and that is not what ought to be," [Chris] Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never bottom feeders in the residential mortgage market."

   2008 July 11, Romaine Bostick, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac are Sound; Panic Unwarranted, Dodd Says”, in Bloomberg News

4. UScolloquialcountableA highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.

present singular third person panics · participle present panicking · participle past panicked · past panicked

1. transitiveTo cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.

   He told us he'd almost stepped on Ellen's body that night—dead and stiffening. Then I'd come round the corner and hailed him, and that panicked him.

   1927 October, Rudyard Kipling, “Fairy-Kist”, in Limits and Renewals, Dominions edition, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1932, →OCLC, page 169

2. transitivecomputingTo cause (a computer system) to crash.

   If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, reboot, and panic as it attempts to reload the faulty driver every time it reboots after panic.

   2010, Solaris system engineers, “Managing Devices”, in Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials (Solaris System Administration Series), Santa Clara, Calif.: Sun Microsystems Press, →ISBN, section 9.3.4.2 (Avoiding Recurring Panic)

3. UScolloquialtransitiveTo highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).
4. intransitiveTo feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.

   I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act.

   2019 January 25, 5:22 from the start, in Our House is on Fire, spoken by Greta Thunberg, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland: World Economic Forum

5. intransitivecomputingOf a computer system: to crash.

plural panics · alternative panick

1. countableuncountableoriginallyFoxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.
2. broadlycountableuncountableA plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass.

   There be ſundrie ſorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hathe beene ſet downe but two, that is to ſay, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: […]

   1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book I, page 78

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   [folio 76, recto] Panicum […] hathe no name in Engliſh yet⸝ but it may well be called panick after yͤ Latin. Panik hath leues lyke vnto a rede when it commeth firſt furth. […] [folio 76, verso] Dioſcorides writeth yͭ Panic hathe the ſame vertue yͭ Milleth hathe⸝ but that it noriſheth & byndeth leſſe. Galene ſayeth yͭ panic is of the kynde of pulſes⸝ and in lykenes lyke vnto millet⸝ and alſo in vertue of ſmall noriſhmẽt⸝ and dry.

   Panicum […] hath no name in English yet, but it may well be called panic after the Latin. Panic hath leaves like unto a reed when it cometh first forth. […] [Pedanius] Dioscorides writeth that panic hath the same virtue that millet hath, but that it nourisheth and bindeth less. Galen sayeth that panic is of the kind of pulses, and in likeness like unto millet, and also in virtue of small nourishment, and dry.

   1562, Wylliam Turner [i.e., William Turner], “Of Panick”, in The Second Parte of Guilliam Turners Herball⸝ […], Cologne: […] Arnold Birckman, →OCLC, folios 76, recto – 76, verso

3. countableuncountableThe edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.

   Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day. Bread made of Pannick nouriſheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hauing in it neither clammineſſe, nor fatneſſe; and therefore it drieth a moiſt belly.

   1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book I, page 79

comparative more Panic · superlative most Panic · alternative panic

1. Greekarchaichuman sciencesSynonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).

   Synonyms: Pandean