Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also pan) to beg; thus panhandling n. and adj.

1884		Daily Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN) 5 Sept. 8/2: A young lady, one of whose names is Cleveland, was baptized at the St. Joseph hospital yesterday. The infant ushered upon a cold and Pan-Handling world has a father, but now our pen pauses in paralytic fingers.
1885		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 17 Oct. 2: New York is rather slow when playing baseball for the championship, but get her started at panhandling for a pedestal or a monument and she will capture the pennant every time.
1898		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 12 Apr. 2/2: One of those slang words which [...] become regular and recognised individuals in the verbal community because they express something for which there is no other adequate expression is the noun ‘panhandler,’ and its offshoot is the verb ‘to panhandle.’.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 291: They’ve cleaned him up [...] Billy Van Flange is gone, hook, line, and sinker. He’s on his uppers, goin’ about panhandlin’ old chums for a five-dollar bill.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 317: They’re a panhandlin’ outfit, an’ the less I got the less they git.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘Proof of the Pudding’ in Strictly Business (1915) 242: He felt his sleeve grasped and held. Suspecting that he was about to be panhandled, he turned a cold and unprofitable face.
1916		Day Book (Chicago) 6 Apr. 18/1: ‘I guess there was a time when you done your bit of panhandling,’ said the beggar.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 43: An able-bodied man who begs when broke is beneath contempt. That is ‘panhandling’ and an able-bodied ‘panhandler’ is always considered despicable.
1927		H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 322: The Scholar scorned to panhandle.
1927		Minneapolis Star (MN) 12 Nov. 22/1: ‘They run from crocus (physician) to crocus and pan (beg) a deck of coke (six doses)’.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 80: If you kids can panhandle [...] I wish you’d bum an axle for me.
1938		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 9 Apr. 20: The Panhandling Brigade: the boys and girls seeking coffee money.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 231: When he gets out [of hospital] he panhandles for a couple of weeks.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 103: I had to panhandle two bits for the bus.
1965		S.E. Wallace Skid Row 30: Vagrancy merits a longer sentence [...] than drunkenness, disturbing the peace, or panhandling.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 139: Winos and drunks filtered up from the Bowery to panhandle.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 154: Between panhandling missions and thieving forays for food and garbage wine.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 129: Everybody was pulling strokes, doing deals, and panhandling all day long.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 110: Pan – to beg.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 340: Some cop ketch me panhandlin’, he’d get my ass throwed in the slammer just to make a pinch.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 176: Around Barstow I had to panhandle gas money to make it to LA.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 108: Panhandling is hungry work for a growing boy.
2011		S. Comar Border Junkies 157: As I panhandled along the streets ofsouth El Paso and Segundo Barrio, I didn't run into too many [...] junkies who panhandled and crossed to Juárez to supply their habit.
2016		Times 20 Aug. 35/2: People [will] ride in on a railcar from who knows where and panhandle (neg) to buy pot.

2. in fig. use, to elicit.

1974

J. Lahr Hot to Trot 182: Don’t panhandle for sympathy, baby.