n. & v.
—n.
1 a a vessel of metal, earthenware, or plastic, usu. broad and shallow, used for cooking and other domestic purposes. b the contents of this.
2 a panlike vessel in which substances are heated etc.
3 any similar shallow container such as the bowl of a pair of scales or that used for washing gravel etc. to separate gold.
4 Brit. the bowl of a lavatory.
5 part of the lock that held the priming in old guns.
6 a hollow in the ground (salt-pan).
7 a hard substratum of soil.
8 US sl. the face.
—v. (panned, panning)
1 tr. colloq. criticize severely.
2 a tr. (foll. by off, out) wash (gold-bearing gravel) in a pan. b intr. search for gold by panning gravel. c intr. (foll. by out) (of gravel) yield gold.
Phrases and idioms:
pan out (of an action etc.) turn out in a specified way.
Derivatives:
panful n. (pl. -fuls). panlike adj.
Etymology: OE panne, perh. ult. f. L patina dish
2.
v. & n.
—v. (panned, panning)
1 tr. swing (a cine-camera) horizontally to give a panoramic effect or to follow a moving object.
2 intr. (of a cine-camera) be moved in this way.
—n. a panning movement.
Etymology: abbr. of PANORAMA
3.
n. Bot.
1 a leaf of the betel.
2 this enclosing lime and areca-nut parings, chewed in India etc.
Etymology: Hindi f. Skr. parna feather, leaf
Useful english dictionary. 2012.