DCHP-1 Online

pan ((n.))

• 1 n. a fairly substantial slab of ice broken off from a large expanse of ice; an ice floe.

  See also: ice-pan (def. 1)  pan-ice  

  • 1771  (1911)  I attempted to cross over at a place where the ice lay in small pans, and appeared to be firm. . . .
  • 1841  Upon the pans were many hundreds of young seals, just pupped.
  • 1966  Jimmy managed . . . to hook him with a sealing hook . . . and eventually to haul the youngster on to a larger pan after paddling to it...

• 2 n. Sealing, Nfld a stack of sealskins marked with a flag or pennant to show the owner and left for later recovery.

  See also: pan ((v.)) (def. 2)  

  • 1907  We didn't form 'pans' (piles) of seals as they do now, but stuck pretty close to the vessel and hauled two seals a man.
  • 1960  (1965)  They killed and panned a heavy load with flags in every pan. . . .
  • 1965  . . . they have to work sometimes half the night picking up the day's kill from the pans, and stowing them below

• 3a † n. Placer Mining a shallow, circular vessel used for separating gold from gravel, etc.

  See also: pan ((v.)) (def. 1)  

  • 1881  [The gold and sand] is put in a good pan with quick silver, and as the sand is washed out the gold amalgamates with the quick silver, forming a pasty mass.
  • 1957  A pick, shovel and pan, stood outside, implements which had probably been there for the last fifty years.

• 3b n. Placer Mining a panful of gold-bearing gravel.

  • 1860  Two bits to the pan is an excellent prospect.
  • 1936  She carried on, and then, in washing another pan, she obtained about twenty cents.

• 4 n. one of the broad curved surfaces of a moose's antlers.

  • 1925  . . . he had a spread of forty-seven inches, pans as broad as a tea-tray, with eighteen points. "Yes, sir, a record moose for these parts."