Lexic.us

Definition of Pan out

1. Verb. Be a success. "The idea panned out"

2. Verb. Wash dirt in a pan to separate out the precious minerals.

Definition of Pan out

1. Verb. (usually transitive) To separate and recover (valuable minerals) by swirling dirt or crushed rock in a pan of water, in the manner of a traditional prospector seeking gold. ¹

2. Verb. (idiomatic usually intransitive) To succeed; to proceed according to plan; to result or end up. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Pan Out

pan-zoism pan-zooism pan american health organization pan and scan pan bagnat pan bagnats pan deist pan deists pan flute pan flutes

pan former pan gravy pan men pan off pan out (current term) pan paniscus pan pipes pan roast pan theism pan theisms

pan theist pan theists pan troglodytes panabase panacea panacean panaceas panaceæ panache

Literary usage of Pan out

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary, Historical and by John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley (1902)
"They got to blows, but things didn't pan out as 1 thought they would. ... Ought ter pan out well.' 1901. Referee, 7 Ap. ii t We do not want to know about ..."

2. The Great Divide: Travels in the Upper Yellowstone in the Summer of 1874 by Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin Dunraven (1876)
"The ' Greenwood Tree,' we thought, sounded nice, but a warm dry tent appeared to us to be the right 1 To ' pan out' is a most eloquent expression derived ..."

3. Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages with by Edward Ellis Morris (1898)
"Pan, or Pan-wash, Pan-out, Pan-off, verbs, to wash the dirt in the pan for gold. Some of the forms, certainly pan-out, are used in the United States. 1870. ..."

4. Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases, and Usages by Edward Ellis Morris (1898)
"Pan, or Pan-wash, Pan-out, Pan-off, verbs, to wash the dirt in the pan for gold. Some of the forms, certainly pan-out, are used in the United States. 1870. ..."

5. An American Glossary by Richard Hopwood Thornton (1912)
"pan out. To turn out, to develope. From the process of placer mining. 1881 The route did not pan out as was expected.—NY Sun, Nov. 16. ..."

6. California: Its History and Romance by John Steven McGroarty (1911)
"It was on account of this very crude and primitive process that the saying came about that this claim or the other, would "pan out" so much or so little, ..."

7. California: Its History and Romance by John Steven McGroarty (1911)
"It was on account of this very crude and primitive process that the saying came about that this claim or the other, would "pan out" so much or so little, ..."

Other Resources: