Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pan n.2

[pan v.1 (1)]

a criticism.

Show quotations
[US]H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 237: He’s a Class-A press agent for me too. You ought to get some of the three-sheets he’s been putting up. I ain’t had to hear a pan about myself since he’s been on the lot.

In phrases

get the pan (v.)

(US) to be criticized, denigrated.

Show quotations
[US]K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xviii: I will admit that there are some grand wonders in this business, but that is no reason why [...] all get the pan for the actions of a few.
put on the pan (v.)

(US) to subject someone to criticism, to attack verbally.

Show quotations
[US]K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xii: Ben Teal has been just that kind and gentle, and didn’t put a one of us on the pan.
[US]N.-Y. American 22 Sept. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 237: Umpires are human, and when they miss a ‘close one’ [...] they should not be put on the pan.
[US]T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 67: Noted jurist put on the pan.
W.R. Burnett King Cole 166: There would be no great upheaval [...] things would go along as before and pretty soon the very papers now shouting so loudly for him would be putting him on the pan.
[US]S. Sterling ‘Ten Carats of Lead’ in Black Mask Stories (2010) 223/1: Now they’ve gone up against a chair job, everybody’ll get put on the pan about it.