# pan

Pronunciation: say "PAN" /pæn/

## Noun

1. A metal container used for cooking food, either wide and shallow or deeper with one long handle.
   - Simple: A metal dish or pot that you cook food in on a stove or in an oven.
   - _He greased the pan before pouring in the batter._
   - _Most baking pans are made of aluminum or steel._
9. The amount of food or material held in a pan.
   - Simple: The food or other things held inside a pan.
   - _The cook divided the pan of rice among six plates._
   - _A single pan of lasagna fed the entire family._
10. A wide, shallow dish used to separate grains of gold from gravel by washing the contents with water.
   - Simple: A wide, shallow dish used to wash dirt and find gold inside it.
   - _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._
6. A film sequence in which the camera turns horizontally to sweep across an area.
   - Simple: A shot in a film made by moving the camera from side to side.
   - _The film's opening pan sweeps from the harbor to the city skyline._
   - _Several long pans establish the vastness of the landscape._
11. Strongly negative criticism, especially of a creative work.
   - Simple: Very harsh criticism of something.
   - _The critic's pan ended the show's short run._
   - _A single pan in a major paper can sink a Broadway show._
12. A shallow container used as a toilet by a person confined to bed.
   - Simple: A container used as a toilet by someone who cannot leave their bed.
   - _An orderly emptied and cleaned each pan on the ward._
   - _After surgery she relied on a pan for several days._
13. A shallow natural depression in the ground that holds water at times and often dries to a salt flat.
   - Simple: A low, flat hollow in the ground where water collects and often dries up, leaving salt or mud.
   - _Heat shimmered above the empty pan at midday._
   - _Explorers crossed the pan before the rains could return._
14. Short form of salt pan: a shallow, man-made basin where seawater or brine is left to evaporate so salt can be gathered. — Ellipsis of salt pan: a flat artificial pond used for collecting minerals from evaporated water.
   - Simple: Short form of salt pan: a shallow pond built to collect salt by letting salty water dry up.
   - _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._
16. A person's face, viewed in informal or jocular terms. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A person's face, often used in a joking way.
17. A loaf of bread, particularly a pan-loaf. *(Ireland)*
   - Simple: A loaf of bread, especially one baked in a loaf pan.
   - _Will you grab a sliced pan and a pint of milk from the shop?_
   - _He sliced the pan thickly for sandwiches._
18. A deep plastic container used for washing or preparing food; a basin. *(Ireland)*
   - Simple: A deep plastic bowl used for washing things or preparing food.
   - _The plastic pan in the sink was full of vegetables soaking in cold water._
   - _Grandma kept a large pan for kneading dough._
19. Short for steelpan: a tuned percussion instrument made from a steel oil drum, developed in Trinidad and Tobago. — Ellipsis of steelpan.
   - Simple: Short for steelpan: a tuned metal drum used in Caribbean music.
   - _She learned to play the pan as a child in Trinidad._
   - _The pan carries the melody in most calypso arrangements._
20. Another spelling of paan: betel leaf folded around areca nut and other fillings, chewed especially after meals in South Asia. *(India)* — Alternative form of paan. (pronounced: say "PAHN" US /pɑn/, UK /pɑːn/)
   - Simple: Another spelling of paan: betel leaf folded around areca nut and other fillings, chewed especially after meals.
   - _She bought pan from a roadside stall after the meal._
   - _The flavor of pan lingered in his mouth._
21. On a flintlock firearm, the small receptacle in which the priming powder is held.
   - Simple: The small dish on an old gun that holds the gunpowder used to fire it.
   - _The flint struck a spark that ignited the powder in the pan._
   - _He kept the pan covered to protect the priming from drizzle._
22. Each of the shallow dishes that hang from or sit on a balance, holding either the things being weighed or the weights.
   - Simple: One of the two small, flat dishes on a balance scale, where you put things or weights to weigh them.
   - _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. The bowl of a toilet together with its base. Formerly, the removable chamber pot fitted inside a close stool.
   - Simple: The bowl and base of a toilet. In the past, the pot inside a chair used as a toilet.
   - _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._
25. The skull, regarded as a vessel that holds the brain.
   - Simple: The hard, bony part of the head that holds the brain.
26. The brain regarded as the seat of a person's intelligence.
   - Simple: A person's brain, thought of as the source of their thinking.
27. Short form of hardpan: a dense, compacted layer below the topsoil that water and roots cannot easily get through. — Ellipsis of hardpan: a hard substrate such as is formed in pans.
   - Simple: Short form of hardpan: a hard soil layer below the surface that water and roots cannot easily pass through.
   - _Water pooled on the surface because the pan blocked drainage._
   - _Farmers broke up the pan to improve root growth._
28. A closed vessel used for boiling or evaporating liquids as part of a manufacturing process; a vacuum pan.
   - Simple: A sealed container used to boil or dry liquids while making a product.
   - _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._
29. Short form of pantograph: the hinged frame on the roof of an electric train or tram that collects power from overhead wires. *(colloquial)* — Clipping of pantograph.
   - Simple: Short form of pantograph: a metal arm on a train or tram roof that gets electricity 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._

## Verb

2. To harshly criticize something, especially a creative work such as a book or movie.
   - Simple: To say very bad things about something, especially a book or movie.
   - _The reviewers panned her debut novel as clumsy and overlong._
   - _Theater critics pan productions that waste their talented casts._
3. Used with out: to turn out well or prove successful, often after a period of uncertainty.
   - Simple: Used with out: to turn out well in the end.
   - _Few of his schemes ever pan out as planned._
   - _The investment finally panned out after years of patience._
4. Of a camera, to turn horizontally in order to follow action or take in a scene.
   - Simple: To move a camera slowly from side to side.
   - _The camera panned slowly across the harbor, from the lighthouse to the old fish market._
   - _Good operators pan smoothly to avoid jarring the viewer._
5. To wash earth or sand in a pan in order to separate out grains of gold.
   - Simple: To wash dirt or sand in a pan to find gold.
   - _Prospectors panned the cold stream for weeks without finding much._
   - _You can still pan sand from this riverbed and find gold._
7. To set or change where a sound seems to come from in a stereo or multichannel mix, or (of a sound) to move across it.
   - Simple: To make a sound seem to come from one side or speaker, or to move from one speaker to another.
   - _She panned the synth line across the stereo image for a sweeping effect._
   - _Producers often pan backing vocals wide to open up the mix._
8. To slide the visible part of an image within a display window while keeping the same level of zoom.
   - Simple: To move the view across an image without zooming in or out.
   - _Users can pan smoothly across high-resolution scans without losing detail._
   - _He panned left until the edge of the floor plan came into view._
24. To defeat one's opponents thoroughly and by a clear margin. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To defeat someone easily and by a wide 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._

## Adjective

15. Pansexual or panromantic, attracted to others regardless of their gender. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Attracted to people of any gender.
   - _He came out as pan during his first year of college._
   - _Many pan people feel that label describes them best._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In South Africa, a shallow lake that forms for a time on a dry, flat basin after rain and later disappears.
- (noun) In South Africa, a volcanic pipe, the shaft through which lava rose, or the column of rock it leaves behind.
- (noun) On a ribbed metal roofing sheet, the flat lower strip lying between two raised ribs.
- (noun) A shallow cut in wood or metal into which the flap of a hinge fits.
- (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.
- (verb) To fit or join things together.
- (noun) A piece or share of something.
- (noun) In fortification, the face of a bastion, the length from the shoulder angle to the point of the bastion.
- (noun) A thin sheet of beaten gold or silver, as used for gilding.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5, 9–14, 16–19, 21–28** — From Middle English "panne," from Old English "panne," going back to Proto-West Germanic *pannā and Proto-Germanic *pannǭ; the ultimate origin is uncertain. The mainstream view traces it to Late Latin "panna," though some scholars doubt this because of its sparse, regional attestation, and others have suggested a non-Indo-European Mediterranean substrate word: a controversial idea most scholars remain skeptical about. It is cognate with Dutch "pan," German "Pfanne," Danish "pande," and Swedish "panna."
**Meanings 4, 6–8** — A clipping of "panorama."
**Meaning 15** — A clipping of "pansexual" or "panromantic."
**Meaning 29** — A clipping of "pantograph."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pan (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).