# pancake

Pronunciation: say "PAN-kayk" /ˈpæn.keɪk/

## Noun

1. A leavened batter cake fried in a pan or on a griddle, thicker and fluffier than the English style.
   - Simple: A thick, soft, round cake made from batter and cooked in a hot pan.
   - _She poured warm syrup over a fluffy pancake at breakfast._
   - _The recipe makes light, raised pancakes that puff up on the griddle._
2. A thin batter cake fried in a pan, often unleavened and similar to a crepe, as eaten in England.
   - Simple: A thin, flat cake made from batter and fried in a pan.
   - _On Shrove Tuesday she tossed a pancake in the pan and served it with lemon._
   - _Her pancakes came out so thin they could be rolled around a filling._
3. A type of stage makeup consisting of a thick layer of compressed powder.
   - Simple: A thick makeup made of pressed powder, used to cover the face.
   - _Under the hot lights, the cast applied pancake to keep their faces from shining._
   - _The makeup artist sponged a smooth layer of pancake across the actor's jaw._
4. Any thing or mass that has been reduced to a very thin, flat shape.
   - Simple: Something that is very thin and flat in shape.
   - _The fallen tent collapsed into a pancake of canvas and poles._
   - _Years of pressure had compressed the sediment into thin pancakes of rock._
8. A defensive play in volleyball in which the ball rebounds off the back of a hand pressed flat to the floor.
   - Simple: A volleyball save where a flat hand is slid under the ball so it bounces up.
   - _The libero saved the rally with a desperate pancake just before the ball hit the floor._
   - _Her diving pancake kept the play alive in the final set._
9. A box on a film or television set that an actor stands on to appear taller. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A low box that an actor stands on to look taller on camera.
   - _The shorter lead spent half the scene perched on a pancake to even out the eyeline._
   - _Props quietly slid a pancake beneath him before the two-shot._
11. A juggling throw, usually with a ring, in which the prop spins around an axis along its diameter.
   - Simple: A throw in juggling where a ring spins flat as it travels through the air.
   - _The juggler closed the sequence with a smooth pancake that sent the ring spinning flat._
   - _A well-timed pancake keeps the ring level as it crosses to the other hand._
12. A composite leather made from scraps, glue, and board, originally used for insoles and later for heels and soles.
   - Simple: A cheap leather-like material made from scraps glued together, used in shoe parts.
   - _The budget boots used pancake for the heel stacks rather than solid leather._
   - _Shoemakers once relied on pancake to keep insole costs down._

## Verb

5. To crush something flat with sudden, violent force.
   - Simple: To crush something flat with great force.
   - _The avalanche pancaked the mountain cabin within seconds._
   - _Engineers feared the blast would pancake the adjacent structures._
6. To collapse progressively, each floor falling onto the one below.
   - Simple: To fall down one floor onto another, one level at a time.
   - _Investigators concluded the structure had pancaked when its central columns failed._
   - _Poorly reinforced concrete floors can pancake during a major earthquake._
7. To land an aircraft in a flat, level attitude, dropping it heavily onto the surface.
   - Simple: To land an aircraft by dropping it flat onto the ground.
   - _With one engine gone, she chose to pancake on the open field._
   - _The damaged biplane pancaked hard but the crew walked away._
10. To stretch out and lie completely flat against a surface.
   - Simple: To lie stretched out flat against the ground.
   - _On hot afternoons the corgi will pancake on the tile to cool down._
   - _The lizard pancaked against the warm rock, its limbs splayed._

## Origin

Inherited from Middle English pancake (panne cake, pankake), which by surface analysis is simply pan + cake. It was perhaps adapted from Middle Low German pankôke, pannekôke, from Old Saxon *pannakōko, where the compound is much older; compare Old High German phankuohho (8th century) and modern German Pfannkuchen, West Frisian pankoek, and Dutch pannenkoek. The juggling sense arose by analogy with a pancake being tossed in a pan.

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