panics

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of panic.

   Financial panics in the nineteenth century often began with a single failed bank.

   Repeated panics during the storm sent the campers scrambling for shelter.

   Note

   The plural exists only where panic names something you can count. The overwhelming fear itself takes no plural, but its episodes do: scares, market sell-offs, system crashes. Botanists count too, for the panic grasses of Panicum and their relatives, so panics in a seed catalog are plants, not frights. In US colloquial use, a comedian's best shows can be panics as well: riots, screams.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of panic.

   He panics whenever he loses sight of his children in a crowd.

   The herd panics the instant it catches the scent of a predator.

   Note

   Spelling is the trap with this verb. Before -ed and -ing it takes a k to keep the c hard (panicked, panicking), but before -s nothing is needed, so this form stays plain. It works in both directions: a person panics and loses their head, or something panics a crowd. In computing, a system that crashes also panics.

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