▪ I. pancake, n.
(ˈpænkeɪk)
[f. pan n.1 1 + cake n.]
1. A thin flat cake, made of batter fried in a pan. Often taken as the type of flatness; phr. as flat as a pancake (and varr.) (also used with reference to the fig. senses of flat a.)
| c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. i. 46 Putte a litel of þe Whyte comade in þe panne, & late flete al a-brode as þou makyst a pancake. 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. v. 53 For their meate they vse, moche a kynde of pancake made of rye meale. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl ii. i, A continual Simon and Jude's rain Beat all your feathers as flat down as pancakes! 1619 Pasquil's Palin. (1877) 152 And every man and maide doe take their turne, And tosse their Pancakes up for feare they burne. 1757 Smollett Reprisal i. ii, I'll beat their skulls to a pancake. 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. xxvii. 138 He has crush'd his nose..as flat as a pancake to his face. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v. Pancake Tuesday, In some farm houses the servants, according to seniority, fried and tossed the pancake. 1830 Marryat King's Own I. xvii. 261 Under which it had lain, jammed as flat as a pancake. 1860 Ld. Bloomfield in Lady G. Bloomfield's Remin. (1883) II. xiv. 97 The country is as flat as a pancake. 1909 Dialect Notes III. 411 Flatter than a pancake, very flat, of persons and things. 1921 Galsworthy To Let i. ix. 79 Fleur was not yet home... Here were her aunt, and her cousins the Cardigans, and this fellow Profond, and everything flat as a pancake for the want of her. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 735 The last [stout] they sent from O'Rourkes was as flat as a pancake. 1936 ‘G. Orwell’ Keep Aspidistra Flying i. 15 He was nearly thirty and had accomplished nothing; only his miserable book of poems that had fallen flatter than any pancake. 1959 Daily Tel. 14 Mar. 6 His statement to the House of Commons yesterday fell as flat as a pancake. |
2. Applied to various objects thin and flat like a pancake, and in more extended applications,
e.g. a. An imitation of leather consisting of leather-scraps glued together and stamped into sheets by hydraulic pressure, used for in-soles (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875).
b. An arrangement of six playing-cards, in which one card is laid down and another transversely across it; round these are then placed four others, held in their places by the overlapping ends of the first two, and by overlapping each other, so that all form one cohering whole.
c. Palæont. (See
quot. and
cf. the existing cake-urchin.)
d. dial. (
a) The leaf of the Kidney-wort,
Cotyledon Umbilicus (Devon); (
b) The fruit of the Common Mallow,
Malva sylvestris (N.
Linc.).
e. Naut. A single cake of
pancake-ice: see 3.
f. A type of flat hat.
U.S. g. A vertical descent made by an aircraft in a level position (see
quot. 1918
1); the landing of an aircraft in an emergency with the undercarriage retracted (see
pancake landing).
h. An opaque facial treatment used as a base for make-up. Freq.
attrib., as
pancake make-up.
orig. U.S.| b. 1844 Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury I. ix, I'll bet you..that I make the whole of this pack of cards into ‘pancakes’. |
| c. 1843 W. Humble Dict. Geol. & Min., Pancake, the name given by Klein to the Echinodiscus laganum, a species of fossil echinus, belonging to the division catocysti. |
| d. 1886 Britten & Holland Plant-n., Pancakes. |
| e. 18.. in Borthwick Brit. Amer. Rdr. (1860) 263 This sludge [of ice]..forms itself into small plates, which, being rounded by continual rubbing, are called by the sailors pancakes. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Pancakes, thin floating rounded spots of snow ice, in the Arctic seas, and reckoned the first indication of the approach of winter, in August. |
| f. 1875 E. S. Nadal Impressions London Social Life 143 The cap was peculiar, though about the year '56 we had something like it called the ‘Pancake’. 1945 Amer. Speech XX. 233/1 She had on her duty dress and a French pancake. Ibid. 234/1 French pancake, flat hat. 1957 M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 241/2 Pancake beret, broad flat beret. 1975 G. Howell In Vogue 188 (caption) Pancake and huge gloves in looped emerald green crochet. 1976 M. & G. Gordon Ordeal (1977) xiii. 92 She wore..a pancake Stetson that she could tilt over her face. |
| g. 1912 Aero Mar. 66/1 Pride cometh before a pancake. 1913 C. Mellor Airman 25 Landings must be ‘normal’—not of the ‘pancake’ order. 1914 Hamel & Turner Flying 66 He must be able to learn how to make a fairly safe ‘pancake’. 1918 H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks (ed. 6) 14 Pancakes, pilot's slang for stalling an aeroplane and dropping like a pancake. 1918 Cowley & Levy Aeronautics x. 225 Dangerous consequences due to a landing of a pancake type are usually guarded against by a strong under-carriage and by the insertion of shock absorbers. 1974 P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry 5 In the R.A.F. during the last war crash landings were pancakes. |
| h. 1937 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 13 July 251/1 Max Factor & Co., Los Angeles, Calif... Pan-cake. The word ‘cake’ is disclaimed apart from the mark. For cosmetic in the nature of a solidified cream used for a make-up base. 1940 Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 99 (caption) Pan-Cake Makeup. 1946 Trade Marks Jrnl. 15 May 244/2 Pancake... Cosmetic preparations for toilet use and for use in theatrical, motion picture, television, and photographic make-up. Max Factor & Co..., Hollywood, United States of America; manufacturers. 1951 H. MacInnes Neither Five nor Three i. v. 66 Miss Guttman's face flushed with pleasure even under the pan-cake make-up. 1953 New Yorker 13 June 61/1 Like his Cabinet members, he used pancake makeup. 1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions iii. ii. 737 It's too bad they didn't get some pancake on him before he went up. 1960 L. Cooper Accomplices ii. ii. 84 A private life that you can put over your real one..like your pancake make⁓up. 1962 E. O'Brien Lonely Girl ii. 22, I put pancake on Baba's back to hide her spots. 1970 Sunday Times 3 May 28/6 Women take hours getting themselves done up to attract men, slapping on pancake, painting their eyes. 1975 J. Crosby Affair of Strangers iii. 25 Chantal wore only light pancake, dimming but not obliterating the brown skin. 1975 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 June 4/6 The candidate had ugly mannish hands and, under the heavy pancake make-up, the suspicion of beard stubble. 1978 Chicago June 14/3, I didn't used to wear pancake at all—it was a macho thing with me. But now I do. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
pancake-making;
pancake-like,
pancake-shaped adjs.;
pancake fashion,
pancake-wise advbs.;
pancake batter, the mixture from which pancakes are made;
pancake coil Electr., any flat or very short inductance coil (see
quots.);
Pancake Day,
Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, from the custom of eating pancakes on that day;
pancake descent,
landing [
cf. pancake v. b], the landing of an aircraft in an emergency with the undercarriage retracted;
pancake-ice, floating ice in thin flat pieces, forming in the polar seas at the approach of winter;
pancake-plant dial., the common mallow (
N. Linc.);
pancake race, a race held on Shrove Tuesday, in which the participants are required to toss pancakes as they run;
pancake roll (see
quot. 1967).
| 1739 E. Smith Compl. Housewife (ed. 9) 114 Mix all well together a little thicker than *pancake batter. 1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery vii. 69 Make it up into a thick Batter with Flour, like a Pancake Batter. 1965 A. Christie At Bertram's Hotel xi. 103 She made herself three pancakes with the pancake batter. |
| 1910 H. M. Hobart Dict. Electr. Engin. I. 108 *Pancake coil, a flat former-wound coil used in the construction of the early smooth-core rotating armatures of alternators. The term is also sometimes applied to the flat separately insulated unit coil used in modern high-pressure transformers. 1921 Physical Rev. XVIII. 138 Coursey's curves do not cover the case of coils whose radial dimension exceeds the axial (pancake coils). 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 611/1 Pancake coil, an inductance coil in which the windings are arranged spirally, in the form of a flat disc. 1960 Cooke & Markus Electronics & Nucleonics Dict. 322/2 Pancake coil, a coil having a diameter appreciably greater than its length. 1961 Guardian 18 Jan. 1/1 The transformer..will be made up of a series of ‘pancake’ coils of primary and secondary windings. |
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, *Pancake-day, Shrove Tuesday. |
| 1914 W. J. Claxton Mastery of Air xlviii. 249 It is considered faulty piloting to make a *pancake descent where there is ample landing space. |
| 1863 Atkinson Stanton Grange (1864) 164, I have seen them [hares] work their way—*pancake fashion, I should call it—under a wire fence. |
| 1817 Scoresby in Ann. Reg., Chron. 556 Its exterior is always sludge, and its interior *pancake ice. 1886 A. W. Greely Arctic Service I. vi. 56 No semblance of a pack was noted until about 5 p.m. It then consisted of small pieces of pancake ice, which would in no way interfere with the progress of any steaming vessel. |
| 1928 *Pancake landing [see level v.1 6]. 1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 57/2 Nothing better could be expected than a ‘pancake’ landing which would destroy the undercarriage without seriously injuring the crew. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 374/1 Pancake landing, Specif., in aviation, the act or instance of landing an airplane on its fusilage rather than on its wheels, done when the landing gear is damaged. |
| 1887 W. Rye Norfolk Broads 75 A mound, a considerable one for this *pancake-like county. |
| 1951 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Jan. 3/2 (caption) Mrs. Virginia Leete..takes a spill in the snow during a practice run..in preparation for the annual *pancake race scheduled for Shrove Tuesday. 1955 Ibid. 23 Feb. 2/3 Pancake races have featured Shrove Tuesday observances in Olney for some 510 years. 1967 D. Brice Folk-Carol of England iii. 86 The well-known ‘pancake race’ that takes place in the Buckinghamshire village [of Olney] every Shrove Tuesday. 1972 Guardian 15 Jan. 14/5 Shrovetide brings pancake races like that at Olney in Buckinghamshire, with housewives tossing pancakes as they belt along. 1976 Times 3 Mar. 14/6 The annual women's pancake races in Lincoln's Inn Fields. |
| 1967 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 30 Apr. 38/4 *Pancake roll, a pancake with savoury meat and vegetable fillings, deep fried. 1968 R. V. Beste Repeat Instructions xi. 121 They had a more adventurous meal than the..vegetable chop suey and pancake rolls he usually ordered. 1969 O. Blakeston For crying out Shroud vii. 59 Jim orders fried oysters and crispy pancake rolls. 1976 M. Butterworth Remains to be Seen iv. 68 The diligent Chinese..laboured over their crab foo yung and their crispy pancake rolls. |
| 1902 Daily Chron. 19 Nov. 8/5 She wears a *pancake shaped silk hat on her head. |
| 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., *Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday; on which it is a general custom in the North to have pancakes. |
| 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. (Percy Soc.) 50 [She] makes him sit at table *pancake wise, Flat, flat, God knowes. |
Hence (
nonce-wds.)
ˈpancakish a., somewhat like a pancake;
ˈpancakewards adv., towards a pancake.
| 1883 Blackw. Mag. July 62 A pancakeish omelette and wine were very acceptable. 1867 Cornh. Mag. Mar. 362 Her allowance would not admit of..a surreptitious egg, might her desire pancakewards be never so strong. |
▪ II. ˈpancake, v. [f. pancake n.] a. trans., to squeeze flat like a pancake. Also
fig. and in sense 2 h of the
n.| 1879 G. Meredith Egoist II. 226 These conquerors of mountains pancaked on the rocks in desperate embraces. 1941 Time 6 Oct. 17/1 A..near-hurricane..that killed three people, leveled grain fields, pancaked buildings, blocked highways. Ibid. 20 Oct. 2/1 Starting the bill in the House, with a steam roller set to pancake all opposition. 1942 Capital (Topeka, Kansas) 15 Mar. (caption) Sure! He's pancaked 17 guys in a row! Hits like a train at a grade crossing. 1948 L. Macneice Holes in Sky 13 They tell me report at the first police station. But the station is pancaked—so what can I do? 1953 Dylan Thomas Let. 22 June (1966) 409 Sober, airsick, pancaked flat, I saw these intelligent old friends as a warren full of blockish stinkers. 1973 R. L. Simon Big Fix vii. 50 His face was pancaked in layers, his hair laquered. 1974 Listener 23 May 678/2 Rows of pancaked Cadillacs and burnt-out Rolls-Royces. 1977 S. Wales Echo 18 Jan. 1/4 Police reported 21 confirmed deaths but said it was likely 60 to 70 more bodies remained in a pancaked carriage crushed to a quarter of its bulk by a giant slab of concrete weighing hundreds of tons. |
b. Aeronaut. intr. Of an aircraft: to descend rapidly in a level position in stalled flight,
spec. to land in this manner in an emergency with the undercarriage retracted (
cf. pancake landing). Of the pilot: to cause an aircraft to pancake. Also
transf. and
fig. Hence
ˈpancaking vbl. n.| 1911 Aero Aug. 136/2 In the meanwhile Conway Jenkins had..‘pancaked’ badly, and smashed it pretty conclusively. 1912 Ibid. Mar. 66/1 He..then shut off his engine, calmly waiting for the machine to return to the ground, which it did with a resultant bump, commonly known to the aviation world as pancaking (falling flatly). 1914 Aeronaut. Jrnl. Oct. 316 Pancake, to, to descend steeply, with the wings at a very large angle of incidence, like a parachute. 1914 H. M. Buist Aircraft in German War 35 The craft pancaking, diving and banking are monoplanes. 1916 C. Winchester Flying Men 68 So..the ‘pancaking’ of aircraft is not an advisable method of landing. 1920 19th Cent. Mar. 570 This pancaking device by which the National Socialists tried at the last moment to save the crash. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station xv. 263, I took my chance and about 10 feet up ‘pancaked’—a horrid crash. 1929 E. W. Springs Above Bright Blue Sky 73, I came out of the spin at five hundred feet and pancaked in the reserve lines. 1936 F. Clune Roaming round Darling xxv. 271 All at once she [sc. a lorry] slithered like hell, and, knifing a corner, pancaked on to a mulga-tree. 1938 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 30 July 1/8 He suggested the planes might be ordered to comb isolated mountain forests on the Pacific side of Luzon Island on the possibility the ‘Clipper’ pancaked into the trees. 1943 P. Brennan et al. Spitfires over Malta 91, I told my boys to pancake as soon as they had finished engaging. 1950 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) i. 12 Pancaking, the alighting of an aircraft at an abnormally high rate of descent or low forward speed. 1952 M. Tripp Faith is Windsock vi. 97 ‘Beany Able funnels; we are on three engines and must land.’ ‘Pancake, Able.’ ‘Able pancaking.’ 1962 R. W. Clark Rise of Boffins ii. 53 Another great time-saver was the use of a code for passing instructions to the fighters, and such R.A.F. terms as..‘pancake’ (for land), were invented during these experiments. 1977 Listener 28 Apr. 559/2 His plane..pancaked into it. The Germans..came out..to take him and the plane. |