pan

A pan is used for cooking. This is a pan:

• You can use a frying pan for making many things such as eggs, bacon, fish, or grilled cheese sandwiches.
• I used a pan last night to make some fried rice.
• Many people like to use nonstick pans because they’re easy to clean.
• It’s good to have an assortment of pots and pans in your kitchen if you like to cook.

But there are other types of pans:

If you change the oil in your car, you need an oil pan.
When you clean your house and use a broom to sweep up dirt, you need a dust pan.
A person who is sick in bed and can’t get up to go to the bathroom needs a bed pan.

It’s possible to use the word "pan" as a verb:

When moving a video camera from left to right, you pan right. If you move the camera from right to left, you pan left.	Pan left. = Move the camera to your left.
A person who looks for gold in a river bed uses a pan. He’s panning for gold.
To pan something is to criticize it and say it isn’t very good. The critics panned the most recent movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you open a restaurant that gets panned by the general public, you could go out of business.

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February 24, 2013