pan out

verb

1. informal.
   intr, adverb to work out; turn out; result

Idioms and Phrases

Turn out well, succeed, as in If I don't pan out as a musician, I can always go back to school . This expression alludes to washing gold from gravel in a pan. [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

But other parents make different risk/benefit calculations for their kids, which pan out OK for almost all of them.

From The Daily Beast

Producers, he says, like to pan out from the glass-topped anchor desks to get a shot of the leggy correspondents.

From The Daily Beast

Although his efforts never seemed to pan out, viewers nevertheless were rooting for the unlikely pair.

From The Daily Beast

Barkeley came up with the idea for The Daily Currant after a few other career tracks failed to pan out.

From The Daily Beast

Similarly, much of the policy rhetoric coming from Washington focuses on fears of incipient inflation that have yet to pan out.

From The Daily Beast

All this costs money and it takes a long time to pan out enough dust to pay the bill.

From Project Gutenberg

They finiss their breakfast—I heard them wipe the frying-pan out as plain as if I see it with my eyes!

From Project Gutenberg

Then she raked the fire off the top of the pan, and took the pan out with the long iron fork.

From Project Gutenberg

I was off on a wild goose chase that just didn't pan out, so you really didn't miss a devil of a lot.

From Project Gutenberg

It might even be that she would be a help in case Stephen Marshall's mother did not pan out.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• turn out