3 VERB If you pan a film or television camera or if it pans somewhere, it moves slowly round so that a wide area is filmed. □ [V prep/adv] The camera panned along the line of players. □ [V n] A television camera panned the stadium. [Also V ]
4 VERB If someone pans for gold, they use a shallow metal container to try to find small pieces of gold from a river. □ [V + for ] People came westward in the 1800s to pan for gold. □ [V n] Every year they panned about a ton and a half of gold.
▸ pan out PHRASAL VERB If something, for example a project or some information, pans out , it produces something useful or valuable. [INFORMAL ] □ [V P ] None of Morgan's proposed financings panned out.
PREFIX pan-
is added to the beginning of adjectives and nouns to form other adjectives and nouns that describe something as being connected with all places or people of a particular kind. For example, a pan-European defence system is designed to protect all of the countries in Europe.
pana|cea /pæ nəsiː ə/ (panaceas ) N‑COUNT If you say that something is not a panacea for a particular set of problems, you mean that it will not solve all those problems. □ [+ for ] The proposal is not a panacea for Britain's economic problems.
pa|nache /pənæ ʃ/ N‑UNCOUNT If you do something with panache , you do it in a confident, stylish, and elegant way. □ The BBC Symphony Orchestra played with great panache.
pana|ma hat /pæ nəmɑː hæ t/ (panama hats ) N‑COUNT A panama hat or a panama is a hat, worn especially by men, that is woven from the leaves of a palm-like plant and worn when it is sunny.
pan|cake /pæ nke I k/ (pancakes )
1 N‑COUNT A pancake is a thin, flat, circular piece of cooked batter made from milk, flour, and eggs. Pancakes are often rolled up or folded and eaten hot with a sweet or savoury filling inside. In America, pancakes are usually eaten for breakfast, with butter and maple syrup.
2 flat as a pancake → see flat
Pa n|cake Day N‑UNCOUNT Pancake Day is the popular name for Shrove Tuesday . [BRIT ]
pa n|cake ro ll (pancake rolls ) N‑COUNT A pancake roll is an item of Chinese food consisting of a small roll of thin crisp pastry filled with vegetables and sometimes meat.
pan|cre|as /pæ ŋkriəs/ (pancreases ) N‑COUNT Your pancreas is an organ in your body that is situated behind your stomach. It produces insulin and substances that help your body digest food.
pan|cre|at|ic /pæ ŋkriæ t I k/ ADJ [ADJ n] Pancreatic means relating to or involving the pancreas. □ …pancreatic juices.
pan|da /pæ ndə/ (pandas ) N‑COUNT A panda or a giant panda is a large animal rather like a bear, which has black and white fur and lives in the bamboo forests of China.
pa n|da car (panda cars ) N‑COUNT A panda car is a police car. [BRIT , INFORMAL ]
pan|dem|ic /pænde m I k/ (pandemics ) N‑COUNT A pandemic is an occurrence of a disease that affects many people over a very wide area. [FORMAL ] □ They feared a new cholera pandemic.
pan|de|mo|nium /pæ nd I moʊ niəm/ N‑UNCOUNT If there is pandemonium in a place, the people there are behaving in a very noisy and uncontrolled way. □ There was pandemonium in court as the judge gave his summing up.
pan|der /pæ ndə r / (panders , pandering , pandered ) VERB If you pander to someone or to their wishes, you do everything that they want, often to get some advantage for yourself. [DISAPPROVAL ] □ [V + to ] He has offended the party's traditional base by pandering to the rich and the middle classes.
Pandora /pændɔː rə/ PHRASE If someone or something opens Pandora's box or opens a Pandora's box , they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known about before.
p & p also p and p You use p & p as a written abbreviation for 'postage and packing', when stating the cost of packing goods in a parcel and sending them through the post to a customer. [BRIT , BUSINESS ] □ The guide costs £9.95 (inc. p & p).
pane /pe I n/ (panes ) N‑COUNT A pane of glass is a flat sheet of glass in a window or door.
pan|egyr|ic /pæ n I dʒ I r I k/ (panegyrics ) N‑COUNT A panegyric is a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something. [FORMAL ] □ [+ on ] …Prince Charles's panegyric on rural living.
pan|el ◆◇◇ /pæ n ə l/ (panels )
1 N‑COUNT [with sing or pl verb] A panel is a small group of people who are chosen to do something, for example to discuss something in public or to make a decision. □ [+ of ] He assembled a panel of scholars to advise him. □ The advisory panel disagreed with the decision.
2 N‑COUNT A panel is a flat rectangular piece of wood or other material that forms part of a larger object such as a door. □ …the frosted glass panel set in the centre of the door.
3 N‑COUNT [n N ] A control panel or instrument panel is a board or surface which contains switches and controls to operate a machine or piece of equipment. □ The equipment was extremely sophisticated and was monitored from a central control-panel.
pan|elled /pæ n ə ld/ in AM, use paneled 1 ADJ [usu ADJ n] A panelled room has decorative wooden panels covering its walls. □ …a large, comfortable, panelled room. □ The cheerful room was panelled in pine. ● COMB -panelled combines with nouns to form adjectives that describe the way a room or wall is decorated or the way a door or window is made. □ …a wood-panelled dining room.