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.
Exact synonyms: Pan, Pan Off
Generic synonyms: Wash
Derivative terms: Pan

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, ..."

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