pan

Less common meanings

9. 9
   cooked foodnouncountable

   The amount of food or material held in a pan.

   The cook divided the pan of rice among six plates.

   A single pan of lasagna fed the entire family.

   Similarpanful, tray, dish

10. 10
    gold dishnouncountable

    A wide, shallow dish used to separate grains of gold from gravel by washing the contents with water.

    She swirled the pan until only heavy grains of gold remained.

    He bought a plastic pan and a small shovel before heading to the creek to look for gold.

11. 11
    bad reviewnouncountable

    Strongly negative criticism, especially of a creative work.

    The critic's pan ended the show's short run.

    A single pan in a major paper can sink a Broadway show.

    Similarslating, roasting, savaging, takedown

    Oppositerave

    Note

    Robert Etherington, writing in 1977, describes notices that were "hardly pans" but "only mixed." The line places the word on a scale, with mixed reviews sitting a step above it. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Robert Etherington wrote the quoted passage in 1977. en.wiktionary.org
    • Etherington described the notices as hardly pans but only mixed; the wording supports the note's interpretation. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    bed toiletnouncountable

    A shallow container used as a toilet by a person confined to bed.

    An orderly emptied and cleaned each pan on the ward.

    After surgery she relied on a pan for several days.

    Similarbedpan

13. 13
    desert basinnouncountable

    A shallow natural depression in the ground that holds water at times and often dries to a salt flat.

    Heat shimmered above the empty pan at midday.

    Explorers crossed the pan before the rains could return.

    Similarbasin

    Note

    South African English favors this sense: the flat, often salt-crusted bed of a lake that has dried. It overlaps with playa and salt flat. The same word covers the hollow when it is full, so a pan can hold water one season and stand dry the next without changing its name. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The geographical sense is especially associated with South Africa. en.wiktionary.org
    • A dried lake bed can be flat and encrusted with salt. en.wikipedia.org
    • The sense overlaps with playa and salt flat. en.wikipedia.org
    • A pan can contain water seasonally while retaining its name. en.wikipedia.org
14. 14
    salt pondnounabbreviationellipsis

    Short form of salt pan: a shallow, man-made basin where seawater or brine is left to evaporate so salt can be gathered.

    Workers flooded each pan with seawater and let the water evaporate in the sun.

    Workers raked the crystals into white heaps along the edge of the pan by the harbor.

    Note

    The short form keeps the meaning of the full compound salt pan, but that compound covers two things: a natural salt flat and a man-made saltern where brine is evaporated. Shortened to one word, it here means the artificial pond. Context such as seawater, flooding or harvesting has to show that people built it. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Pan is a shortened form of salt pan, with an artificial-pond sense. en.wiktionary.org
    • Salt pan can mean a natural salt flat. en.wiktionary.org
    • Salt pan can also mean an artificial pond where brine evaporates to recover salt. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    any genderadjectivecolloquial

    Pansexual or panromantic, attracted to others regardless of their gender.

    He came out as pan during his first year of college.

    Many pan people feel that label describes them best.

    UsageUsually after be or identify as: she is pan; people who identify as pan.

    Similarpansexual, panromantic

16. 16
    facenounslangcountable

    A person's face, viewed in informal or jocular terms.

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

    1993, William S. Burroughs, The Letters of William S. Burroughs

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

    1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist

    UsageUsually with a possessive or a judging adjective: your pan, a meaty sort of pan.

    Similarmug, kisser, dial, face

    Note

    Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye (1953) puts a pleased smile on your pan, and George Johnston (1946) gives a man a meaty sort of pan. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Raymond Chandler wrote The Long Goodbye, first published in 1953. en.wikipedia.org
    • The Long Goodbye contains the wording about a pleased smile on your pan. en.wiktionary.org
    • George Johnston's Skyscrapers in the Mist was published in 1946. en.wikipedia.org
    • Johnston's text describes a man as having a meaty sort of pan. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    loafnounIrelandcountable

    A loaf of bread, particularly a pan-loaf.

    Will you grab a sliced pan and a pint of milk from the shop?

    He sliced the pan thickly for sandwiches.

    UsageOften a sliced pan for a loaf of sliced bread.

    Similarloaf

    Note

    In an Irish shop or kitchen, asking for a pan means bread, not cookware. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Pan means a loaf of bread or pan-loaf. en.wiktionary.org
18. 18
    wash tubnounIrelandcountable

    A deep plastic container used for washing or preparing food; a basin.

    The plastic pan in the sink was full of vegetables soaking in cold water.

    Grandma kept a large pan for kneading dough.

    Similarbasin, bowl, tub

    Note

    An Irish usage that moves the word away from the flat metal cookware most English speakers picture. Here it is a deep plastic basin, the kind kept in the sink for washing up or soaking vegetables. Someone in Ireland who asks you to fill the pan wants a bowl, not a frying pan. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • In Ireland, pan can mean a deep plastic basin used for washing or preparing food. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    steel drumnounabbreviationellipsis

    Short for steelpan: a tuned percussion instrument made from a steel oil drum, developed in Trinidad and Tobago.

    She learned to play the pan as a child in Trinidad.

    The pan carries the melody in most calypso arrangements.

    UsageBoth play pan and play the pan are used.

    Note

    A musician's shortening of steelpan, the steel drum that originated in Trinidad. One study of Black and ethnic leadership in Britain tells of a man who "learned to play the pan" and filled in for absent members. The full word steelpan can also name the music itself, but the short form here means the instrument. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The steelpan, also called the steel drum, originated in Trinidad. en.wiktionary.org
    • A published account describes a man who learned to play the pan and substituted for absent members. en.wiktionary.org
20. 20
    SayPAHNUS/pɑn/UK/pɑːn/

    chewed leafnounIndiauncountable

    Another spelling of paan: betel leaf folded around areca nut and other fillings, chewed especially after meals in South Asia.

    She bought pan from a roadside stall after the meal.

    The flavor of pan lingered in his mouth.

    UsagePeople chew pan or buy some pan. The spelling paan avoids a mix-up with the cooking pan.

    Note

    A spelling of paan, the betel-leaf preparation with areca nut or tobacco that is chewed in Asia, especially India. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Pan is an alternative spelling of paan. en.wiktionary.org
    • Paan is a chewing preparation containing betel leaf and areca nut or tobacco. en.wikipedia.org
    • The preparation is chewed in Asia, especially India. en.wikipedia.org
21. 21
    nouncountable

    On a flintlock firearm, the small receptacle in which the priming powder is held.

    The flint struck a spark that ignited the powder in the pan.

    He kept the pan covered to protect the priming from drizzle.

    Note

    A gunsmith's term from the flintlock era: the small pan held the priming powder, and the idiom flash in the pan began here. Robert Drury in 1729 wonders whether the prime was wet in the pan when a gun misfired. In Sheridan Le Fanu's The House by the Churchyard, a brooding character snaps a pistol's pan open and shut. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The firearm term pan denotes the receptacle holding priming powder in a flintlock. nij.ojp.gov
    • Flash in the pan originated in the firing mechanism of flintlock firearms. en.wiktionary.org
    • The book was first published in 1729 as Madagascar: or, Robert Drury's Journal; 1743 is a later edition. collections.soane.org
    • Drury's first-person narrator wonders whether wet priming powder caused a gun to misfire. gutenberg.org
    • Sheridan Le Fanu wrote The House by the Churchyard. gutenberg.org
    • A brooding character, Nutter, repeatedly snaps a pistol's pan open and shut. en.wikisource.org
22. 22
    scale dishnouncountable

    Each of the shallow dishes that hang from or sit on a balance, holding either the things being weighed or the weights.

    The chemist added brass weights to the right pan until the needle settled at zero.

    On the courthouse statue, Justice holds a scale whose pans hang perfectly even.

23. 23
    nouncountable

    The bowl of a toilet together with its base. Formerly, the removable chamber pot fitted inside a close stool.

    She lifted the seat of the close stool and slid out the pan to empty it.

    The new toilet's pan is bolted to the floor and sealed with a wax ring.

    Note

    The word followed the object as bathrooms changed. It first named the removable pot under the seat of a close stool, a box-like chair used as a toilet, and when fixed toilets replaced such chairs it came to mean the bowl and its base. The close-stool use is long obsolete; the toilet use is the current one. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • A close stool was a box-like toilet seat containing a removable pan. historyofparliament.com
24. 24
    beat easilyverbcolloquialtransitive

    To defeat one's opponents thoroughly and by a clear margin.

    Nobody expected a first-year team to pan the defending champions, but the newcomers won by twenty-one points.

    We panned them 42 to 3, the worst loss they had all season.

    Similartrounce, thrash, crush, rout, hammer

25. 25
    nouncountable

    The skull, regarded as a vessel that holds the brain.

    Similarskull, head, noggin, nut, bonce

26. 26
    nounfigurativelycountable

    The brain regarded as the seat of a person's intelligence.

    Similarbrain, mind, head, noggin, noodle

    Note

    A figurative sense that treats the head as a vessel for thought. It extends the skull as the brain's vessel, moving from the container to what it holds, and the related word brainpan can carry the same meaning. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Pan has a figurative sense referring to the brain as one's intellect. en.wiktionary.org
    • Brainpan can also mean the brain or mind. en.wiktionary.org
27. 27
    hard soilnounabbreviationellipsis

    Short form of hardpan: a dense, compacted layer below the topsoil that water and roots cannot easily get through.

    Water pooled on the surface because the pan blocked drainage.

    Farmers broke up the pan to improve root growth.

    Note

    A shortening of hardpan, and a landscape sense that lies underground: a dense layer, largely impervious to water, beneath the surface. Farmers break up a pan to let roots and rain through. The full word hardpan can also mean a dry lake, so the short form can slip between crust and basin. Talk of drainage or roots marks the buried layer. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • Pan is a shortening of hardpan. en.wiktionary.org
    • The exclusivity is too broad: pan also has an obsolete South African geological sense meaning a volcanic pipe, a subterranean structure. en.wiktionary.org
    • The competing volcanic-pipe sense also refers to an underground structure. en.wikipedia.org
    • Hardpan is a dense layer normally beneath the topsoil. en.wikipedia.org
    • Hardpan is largely impervious to water. en.wiktionary.org
    • Breaking up hardpan helps roots grow and water drain. en.wikipedia.org
    • Hardpan also means a dry lake, while pan has both soil-layer and basin meanings. en.wiktionary.org
28. 28
    factory boilernouncountable

    A closed vessel used for boiling or evaporating liquids as part of a manufacturing process; a vacuum pan.

    At the refinery, syrup was boiled in a vacuum pan until sugar crystals formed.

    At the salt works, steam circulated around the closed pan, slowly boiling the brine down to crystals.

    Similarevaporator

29. 29
    train armnouncolloquialabbreviationclipping

    Short form of pantograph: the hinged frame on the roof of an electric train or tram that collects power from overhead wires.

    Engineers inspected the pan where it rubs against the overhead wire, checking for wear after the long run.

    When the pan loses contact, the train briefly draws no power.

    Note

    A railway shortening of pantograph, the device, now usually Z-shaped, that collects current from overhead lines for trains and trams. Pantograph has other meanings, including a drawing aid and an accordion-like linkage, but in rail talk the short form means only the current collector. It is informal shop talk, so formal writing should use the full word. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Pan is a railway shortening of pantograph. en.wiktionary.org
    • Railway pantographs are now usually described as Z-shaped. mersen.com
    • A railway pantograph collects electricity from an overhead line for trains and trams. en.wikipedia.org
    • Pantograph also denotes a drawing aid. en.wikipedia.org
    • Pantograph also denotes an extendable linkage resembling an accordion. en.wiktionary.org
30. 30
    nounSouth Africa

    In South Africa, a shallow lake that forms for a time on a dry, flat basin after rain and later disappears.
31. 31
    nounobsoleteSouth Africa

    In South Africa, a volcanic pipe, the shaft through which lava rose, or the column of rock it leaves behind.
32. 32
    noun

    On a ribbed metal roofing sheet, the flat lower strip lying between two raised ribs.
33. 33
    noun

    A shallow cut in wood or metal into which the flap of a hinge fits.
34. 34
    verb

    In panoramic still photography, to swing the lens across a scene during the exposure, so the image can stretch as far as a full circle.
35. 35
    verb

    To fit or join things together.
36. 36
    noun

    A piece or share of something.
37. 37
    noun

    In fortification, the face of a bastion, the length from the shoulder angle to the point of the bastion.
38. 38
    noun

    A thin sheet of beaten gold or silver, as used for gilding.