panic

1 noun

1 (countable usually singular, uncountable) a sudden strong feeling of fear or nervousness that makes you unable to think clearly or behave sensibly: get into a panic/be thrown into (a) panic: She got into a real panic when she thought she'd lost the tickets. | in (a) panic: Shoppers fled the street in panic after two bombs exploded in central London. | panic attack: Philip sometimes gets panic attacks and can't breathe properly.

2 (countable usually singular, uncountable) a situation in which people are suddenly made very anxious, and make quick decisions without thinking carefully: the recent panic over the contamination of food by listeria and salmonella | panic buying/selling: a wave of panic selling in Hong Kong shook the city yesterday

3 (singular) especially BrE a situation in which there is a lot to do and not much time to do it in: There was the usual last minute panic just before the deadline.

4 press/push the panic button BrE to do something quickly without thinking enough about it, because something unexpected or dangerous has suddenly happened

5 panic stations BrE a state of confused anxiety because something needs to be done urgently: It was panic stations here on Friday.

2 verb panicked, panicking (I, T) to suddenly become so frightened that you cannot think clearly or behave sensibly, or to make someone do this: The crowd panicked at the sound of the gunfire. | He panicked thinking it was a shark. | Don't panic! (=used to tell people to stay calm) | panic sb into doing sth: The protests became more violent and many landowners were panicked into leaving the country.