What is pan?

Famous quotes containing the word pan:

“I don’t pan out on the prophets
An’ free-will, an’ that sort of thing—
But I b’lieve in God an’ the angels,
Ever sence one night last spring.”
—John Milton Hay (1838–1905)

“When Pan sounds up his minstrelsy;
His minstrelsy! O base! This quill,
Which at my mouth with wind I fill,
Puts me in mind, though her I miss,
That still my Syrinx’ lips I kiss.”
—John Lyly (1553–1606)

“A ‘spasm band’ is a miscellaneous collection of a soap box, tin cans, pan tops, nails, drumsticks, and little Negro boys. When mixed in the proper proportions this results in the wildest shuffle dancing, accompanied by a bumping rhythm.”
—For the City of New Orleans, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)