pan out
pan out verb: 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.
Verb
pan out (third-person singular simple present pans out, present participle panning out, simple past and past participle panned out)
- 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.
- On the Saturday holidays in summer-time we used to borrow skiffs whose owners were not present and go down the river three miles to the cave hollow (Missourian for "valley"), and there we staked out claims and pretended to dig gold, panning out half a dollar a day at first.1907, Mark Twain, chapter 23, in Chapters from My Autobiography
- His father came out in '49 with the gold rush crowd, panned out a good pile, and then, liking the life—San Francisco was a gay little burg those days—opened one of the crack gambling houses down on the Old Plaza.1919, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 11, in The Avalanche
- To proceed according to plan; to result or end up with an acceptable outcome or in an acceptable form.
- My hopes for a white Christmas didn't pan out this year.
- We'll see what pans out from the arbitration process.
- To fall asleep.
pan out meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
pan out in Tamil
- எதிர்நோக்கு முடிவுதரல்
pan out in Malayalam
- be successful, succeed, work (out)
- ഫലിക്കുക, ഫലവത്താകുക, ശുഭമായിത്തീരുക, അന്തിമഗുണം ചെയ്യുക, ഫലം ചെയ്യുക, ഫലപ്രാപ്തിയിലെത്തുക
- work out, turn out, end (up)
- ഉരുപ്പിടിക്കുക, പരിണമിക്കുക, നടക്കുക, നടപ്പിലാകുക, ആയിത്തീരുക, ഒന്നിൽ അവസാനിക്കുക
Examples of pan out in a sentence
- Many a pretty girl I have seen in my time, who didn't pan out according to specifications when I finally met her.1917, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 3, in Bab: A Sub-Deb:
- There's a lot of theories that didn't pan out: lone gunman, communism, geometry…1998, “The One With Rachel's Crush”, in Friends, spoken by Joey Tribbiani:
- "It is anybody's guess how this is going to pan out.2020 July 29, “Carne: "Treasury has its hands on the railway joystick already"”, in Rail, page 9:
- “It’s not a goodbye because you never know how things pan out in the future, but it’s a thank you and I’ll see you soon,” Kane posted on his social media accounts.2023 August 12, “Harry Kane joins Bayern Munich and leaves door open for Spurs return”, in The Guardian:
Synonyms of pan out
Forms of pan out
| third-person singular present | pans out |
|---|---|
| present participle | panning out |
| past participle | panned out |
| past | panned out |
Questions about pan out
- What does pan out mean?
- Pan out means 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.
- What is pan out in Tamil?
- Pan out in Tamil is எதிர்நோக்கு முடிவுதரல். See Pan out meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use pan out in a sentence?
- Many a pretty girl I have seen in my time, who didn't pan out according to specifications when I finally met her.
- What part of speech is pan out?
- Pan out is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pan out?
- The past tense of pan out is panned out.
Words near pan out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pan out (page history and authors); pan out (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pan out (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “pan out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pan_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.