Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pan v.1

[the blow is fig. given with a SE pan]

1. (orig. US) to criticize severely, to denigrate.

[US]J. Hay ‘Little Breeches’ Pike County Ballads 13: I don’t go much on religion [...] I don’t pan out on the prophets And free-will, and that sort of thing – But I b’lieve in God and the angels.
[US]B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 35: Judge Finished who was severely panned by Attorney Beany for liberating Mutt on the trifling bail of $200.
[US]T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 3 Jan. [synd. cartoon] I’m in awful bad with Daisy. Gee I treat her like a queen but she pans me day an’ night.
[US]S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 83: I guess you’ll quit listening to the guys that pan and roast and kick and beef.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 274: Now Danny’ll think I’m bawling because he panned my book.
[US] in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 441: The critics panned the Hell out of the last two pictures I have been in.
[US]G. Marx letter 21 Aug. in Groucho Letters (1967) 75: Jack O’Brien panned the hell out of it.
[UK]Took & Feldman ‘Bona Books’ Round the Horne 20 Mar. [BBC radio] Our film Motor Cycle Au Pair Boy got panned by the critics.
[US]D. Goines Street Players 148: If you want to get your kicks panning me...
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak.
[UK]Guardian Guide 3–9 July 9: It was roundly panned.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 20 May 9: HoneyMoon has been widely panned.

2. to hit in the face.

[UK]I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 218: If a person does something which doesn’t please us we cry ‘scrag him’ or ‘pan him’.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 110: Pan [...] 3. to strike.
[UK]L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Tings an Times’ in Mi Revalueshanary Fren 78: Wid him han pan him jaw.

3. to smash, to break.

[Scot]G. Armstrong Young Team 4: The wee windae panes above ir aw dirty n a good few ir panned in.

In phrases

pan out (v.)

(Irish) to collapse, to fall asleep.

[Ire]L. McInerney Blood Miracles 94: He is very tired now; he is fit for nothing but panning out.
[Ire]L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 7: ‘[I]t’s way too early for me to be panned out on the couch’.