DCHP-1 Online

pan out † Placer Mining

• 1a v. separate gold from gravel or pulverized rock by washing the gravel in a pan (def. 3).

  See also: pan ((n.)) (def. 3)  pan ((v.)) (def. 1a)  

  • 1859  It was the Kablunak's custom, when the ice cleared away, to pan out a few bags of gold-dust there.
  • 1868  (1962)  The bakin' board hangs on the wa',
    Its purposes are twa-fold--
    For mixing bread wi' yeast or dough
    Or panning oot the braw gold!

• 1b v. yield (in gold).

  • 1877  John Glen calculated . . . that he might strike a new bar or gulch that would pan out as richly as Williams' Creek, Cariboo. . . .
  • 1921  The Colonel had told them that a cubic foot of gravel would pan out twenty dollars in gold, and there were so many thousand cubic feet in the top layer of each claim

• 2 v. Informal turn out; work out in practice.

  • 1884  If the domineering Attorney-General "pans out" well during the coming session he will probably be the man.
  • 1890  What's the brilliant scheme that has panned out so well?
  • 1919  ". . . first guesses about a fellar most gener'ly pans out pretty fair."
  • 1929  How has all this talk panned out?