What does "panic" mean?
Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.
Panic
/ˈpænɪk/ adj, noun, verb, slang
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.
- Grammar: panic is listed as adj, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: scare, terror, abject fear, affright.
- Useful contrasts: breathing exercises, calm demeanor, calm energy.
- Usage evidence: Relax, and above all, don't panic.
How to use "panic"
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Source and review context
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Definition decision workflow
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare. uncountable
"She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky."
- 2 Foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet. countable, uncountable
- 3 an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety wordnet
- 4 Ellipsis of kernel panic (“on Unix-derived operating systems: an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal error”); (by extension) any computer system crash. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis
"If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, reboot, and panic as it attempts to reload the faulty driver every time it reboots after panic."
- 5 A plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass. broadly, countable, uncountable
"[folio 76, recto] Panicum […] hathe no name in Engliſh yet⸝ but it may well be called panick after yͤ Latin. Panik hath leues lyke vnto a rede when it commeth firſt furth. […] [folio 76, verso] Dioſcorides writeth yͭ Panic hathe the ſame vertue yͭ Milleth hathe⸝ but that it noriſheth & byndeth leſſe. Galene ſayeth yͭ panic is of the kynde of pulſes⸝ and in lykenes lyke vnto millet⸝ and alſo in vertue of ſmall noriſhmẽt⸝ and dry."
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events wordnet
- 7 A rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline. countable
""I thought you inherited your money." "I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war.""
- 8 The edible grain obtained from one of the above plants. countable, uncountable
"Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day. Bread made of Pannick nouriſheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hauing in it neither clammineſſe, nor fatneſſe; and therefore it drieth a moiſt belly."
- 9 A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream. US, colloquial, countable
Verb
- 1 To cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily. transitive
"He told us he'd almost stepped on Ellen's body that night—dead and stiffening. Then I'd come round the corner and hailed him, and that panicked him."
- 2 cause sudden fear in or fill with sudden panic wordnet
- 3 To cause (a computer system) to crash. transitive
"If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, reboot, and panic as it attempts to reload the faulty driver every time it reboots after panic."
- 4 be overcome by a sudden fear wordnet
- 5 To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show). US, colloquial, transitive
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 To feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head. intransitive
"I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act."
- 7 Of a computer system: to crash. intransitive
Adjective
- 1 Alternative letter-case form of Panic (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”). Greek, alt-of, archaic
- 2 Synonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”). Greek, archaic
- 3 Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.
"All things were there in a diſordered confuſion, and in a confuſed furie, vntill ſuch time as by prayers and ſacrifices they had appeaſed the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the P[a]nike terror."
- 4 Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.
"[H]e perceived how that many women followed his ſouldiers, ſome being their wives, and ſome wanting nothing to make them ſo but marriage, […] The King coming to a great river, after his men and the wagons were paſſed over, cauſed the bridge to be broken down, hoping ſo to be rid of theſe feminine impediments; but they on a ſudden liſt up a panick ſhrick which pierced the skies, and the ſouldiers hearts on the other ſide of the river, who inſtantly vowed not to ſtirre a foot farther, except with baggage, and that the women might be fetch'd over, which was done accordingly."
Antonyms
breathing exercisescalm demeanorcalm energycalm energy state
Example
"Relax, and above all, don't panic."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "panic"?
Common synonyms include: scare, terror, abject fear, affright, affright, agitation.
How do you use "panic" in a sentence?
Relax, and above all, don't panic.
How do you pronounce "panic"?
Pronounced /ˈpænɪk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
The adjective is borrowed from Middle French panique, a word itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan, the Greek god of fields and woods, was believed to be the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots. Adjective sense 3 (“pertaining to or resulting from overpowering fear or fright”) is partly an attributive use of the noun. The noun is derived from the adjective, while the verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.3 (“to highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show”) is derived from noun sense 4 (“a highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show”).
Etymology 2
From Late Middle English panik, panyk (“plant of the genus Panicum”), borrowed from Latin pānicum, pānīcum (“foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica); plant of the genus Panicum, panicgrass”); further etymology uncertain, probably either from pānis (“bread; loaf”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to graze; to protect; to shepherd”)) or pānus (“ear of millet; thread wound on a bobbin”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁- (“to twist; to weave”)) + -cum (suffix forming neuter nouns). Doublet of bannock and bonnag
Etymology 3
From Pan + -ic.