Definition of "panic"

panic¹

/ˈpænɪk/

adjective
comparative more panic, superlative most panic
1. (Greek mythology, archaic) Alternative letter-case form of Panic (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”)
2. (by extension (see the etymology))
  1. Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.
    Quotations
    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.
    1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Feare”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 28
    So long as Epaminondas was captaine general of the Thebans, there was never ſeene in his campe any of theſe ſudden fooliſh frights, without any certeine cauſe, which they call Panique Terrores.
    1603, Plutarch, “The Apophthegmes or Notable Sayings of Kings, Princes and Great Captains”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, page 425
    But why dwell I ſo intolerable long about Tolerations, I hope my feares are but panick, againſt which I have a double cordiall.
    1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], page 11
    [L]ike a couragious Captain does all he can to imbody his Army; he perſwades, threats, oppoſes, and cries aloud, that albeit Bickermanſe was ſlain yet He was living; yea that many as good Officers as Bickermanſe were in the Army; But in vain; for ſuch was their diſorder and pannick fear, that impoſſible it was to revoke them: […]
    1677, Tho Wright, and R. Chiswell, page 81
    Suſpicion, with Sedition join'd, are near; And Rumors rais'd, and Murmurs mix'd, and Panique Fear.
    1700, [John] Dryden, “The Twelfth Book of Ovid his Metamorphoses, Wholly Translated”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 422
    At that moment a flight of birds passed close overhead, and at the whirr of their wings a panic fear seized her.
    1978, Lawrence Durrell, “Lord Galen’s Farewell”, in Livia: Or Buried Alive […] (The Avignon Quintet; 2), London, Boston, Mass.: Faber and Faber, page 239
    Terrified, he looked down from the skies At the waves, and panic blackness filled his eyes.
    1993, Ovid, “Book Two”, in James Michie, transl., The Art of Love, paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published 2002
  2. Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.
    Quotations
    [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.
    1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Life of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], book IV, paragraph 5, page 332
    No Dangers threatned, but they ſmil'd to meet The pannick French-men trembling at their Feet.
    1705, [Daniel Defoe], The D[utch] Deputies. A Satyr, London: [s.n.], page 5
noun
countable and uncountable, plural panics
1. (uncountable) Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.
  Quotations
  She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
  1914, Louis Joseph Vance, “Burglary”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, page 35
  There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.
  1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, page 125
  Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
  1963, Margery Allingham, “Meeting Point”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, page 232
  It's Christmas at ground zero There's panic in the crowd We can dodge debris While we trim the tree Underneath a mushroom cloud
  1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!‎
  With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hobhouse Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic, stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.
  1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus, New York, N.Y.: Soho Press, page 33
2. (countable, computing) Short for 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.
  Quotations
  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.
  2010, Solaris system engineers, “Managing Devices”, in Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials (Solaris System Administration Series), Santa Clara, Calif.: Sun Microsystems Press, section 9.3.4.2 (Avoiding Recurring Panic)
3. (countable, economics, finance) A rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.
  Quotations
  "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."
  1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 5, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, page 91
  "There is sort of a panic going on, and that is not what ought to be," [Chris] Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never bottom feeders in the residential mortgage market."
  2008 July 11, Romaine Bostick, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac are Sound; Panic Unwarranted, Dodd Says”, in Bloomberg News
4. (countable, US, originally theater, colloquial) A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.
verb
third-person singular simple present panics, present participle panicking, simple past and past participle panicked
1. (transitive)
  1. To cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.
    Quotations
    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.
    1927 October, Rudyard Kipling, “Fairy-Kist”, in Limits and Renewals, Dominions edition, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1932, page 169
  2. (computing) To cause (a computer system) to crash.
    Quotations
    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.
    2010, Solaris system engineers, “Managing Devices”, in Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials (Solaris System Administration Series), Santa Clara, Calif.: Sun Microsystems Press, section 9.3.4.2 (Avoiding Recurring Panic)
  3. (US, colloquial) To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).
2. (intransitive)
  1. To feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.
    Quotations
    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.
    2019 January 25, 5:22 from the start, in Our House is on Fire‎, spoken by Greta Thunberg, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland: World Economic Forum
  2. (computing) Of a computer system: to crash.

panic²

/ˈpænɪk/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural panics
1. (originally) Foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.
2. (by extension) 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.
  Quotations
  [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.Panicum […] hath no name in English yet, but it may well be called panic after the Latin. Panic hath leaves like unto a reed when it cometh first forth. […] [Pedanius] Dioscorides writeth that panic hath the same virtue that millet hath, but that it nourisheth and bindeth less. Galen sayeth that panic is of the kind of pulses, and in likeness like unto millet, and also in virtue of small nourishment, and dry.
  1562, Wylliam Turner [i.e., William Turner], “Of Panick”, in The Second Parte of Guilliam Turners Herball⸝ […], Cologne: […] Arnold Birckman, folios 76, recto – 76, verso
  There be ſundrie ſorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hathe beene ſet downe but two, that is to ſay, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: […]
  1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, book I, page 78
3. The edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.
  Quotations
  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.
  1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, book I, page 79

Definition of "panic"

panic1

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verb

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panic2

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panic¹

panic²