pan out

pan out
a) 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.

b) To succeed; to proceed according to plan; to result or end up.

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.


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  • pan out — {v.}, {informal} To have a result, especially a good result; result favorably; succeed. * /Suppose the class tried to make money by selling candy. How would that pan out?/ * /Edison s efforts to invent an electric light bulb did not pan out until …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • pan out — {v.}, {informal} To have a result, especially a good result; result favorably; succeed. * /Suppose the class tried to make money by selling candy. How would that pan out?/ * /Edison s efforts to invent an electric light bulb did not pan out until …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • pan out — (p[a^]n out ), 1. v. i. To succeed; as, the project didn t pan out. [PJC] 2. To turn out (profitably or unprofitably); to result; to develop; as, the investigation, or the speculation, panned out poorly. [Slang, U. S.] [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • pan out — [v] come to pass; succeed click*, come out*, culminate, eventuate, go, go over*, happen, net*, prove out, result, turn out, work out, yield; concept 706 Ant. fail, not happen  …   New thesaurus

  • pan out — verb 1. be a success The idea panned out • Hypernyms: ↑succeed, ↑win, ↑come through, ↑bring home the bacon, ↑deliver the goods • Verb Frames: Something s …   Useful english dictionary

  • pan out — phrasal verb [intransitive] Word forms pan out : present tense I/you/we/they pan out he/she/it pans out present participle panning out past tense panned out past participle panned out informal if a situation pans out in a particular way, it… …   English dictionary

  • pan out — in. [for something] to work out or turn out all right. □ Don’t worry. Everything will pan out okay. □ Nothing seems to pan out for me anymore …   Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

  • pan\ out — v informal To have a result, especially a good result; result favorably; succeed. Suppose the class tried to make money by selling candy. How would that pan out? Edison s efforts to invent an electric light bulb did not pan out until he used… …   Словарь американских идиом

  • pan out — succeed, go as planned, work out    Blair s ideas usually pan out. His suggestions are practical …   English idioms

  • pan out — end or finish favorably, work out well I hope that your plans to go back to school pan out well …   Idioms and examples

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