pan

1 noun (C)

1 FOR COOKING a round metal container used for cooking usually, with one long handle and a lid; saucepan: Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water.

2 FOR BAKING CAKES ETC AmE a metal container for baking things in; tin BrE: a 9" cake pan

3 FOR WEIGHING one of the two dishes on a pair of scales (=a small weighing machine)

4 TOILET especially BrE the bowl of a toilet

5 DRUM a metal drum that is played in a steel band

6 FOR FINDING GOLD AmE a container used to separate gold from other substances, by washing them in water

7 go down the pan BrE slang to be wasted or become useless or ruined

—see also: frying pan, skidpan, warming pan, a flash in the pan flash 2 (8) 2 verb panned, panning

1 CRITICIZE (T) informal to strongly criticize a film, play etc in a newspaper or on television or radio: a production that was panned by the critics

2 CAMERA

a) (intransitive always + adv/prep) if a film or television camera pans in a particular direction, it moves and follows the thing that is being filmed: The camera panned slowly across the crowd.

b) (I, T) to move a camera in this way

3 GOLD

a) (I, T) to wash soil in a pan to separate gold from it

(+ for): panning for gold

b) also pan out, pan off to get or separate gold in this way

pan out phrasal verb (I) to happen or develop in a particular way: I wonder how it will all pan out.