panic1

[pan-ik] /ˈpæn ɪk/
noun
1.
a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, and that often spreads quickly through a group of persons or animals.
2.
an instance, outbreak, or period of such fear.
3.
Finance. a sudden widespread fear concerning financial affairs leading to credit contraction and widespread sale of securities at depressed prices in an effort to acquire cash.
4.
Slang. someone or something that is considered hilariously funny:
The comedian was an absolute panic.
adjective
5.
of the nature of, caused by, or indicating panic:
A wave of panic buying shook the stock market.
6.
(of fear, terror, etc.) suddenly destroying the self-control and impelling to some frantic action.
7.
(initial capital letter) of or pertaining to the god Pan.
verb (used with object), panicked, panicking.
8.
to affect with panic; terrify and cause to flee or lose self-control.
9.
Slang. to keep (an audience or the like) highly amused.
verb (used without object), panicked, panicking.
10.
to be stricken with panic; become frantic with fear:
The herd panicked and stampeded.
Origin
1595-1605; earlier panique < French < Greek Panikós of Pan; see -ic
Related forms
panicky, adjective
unpanicky, adjective
Synonyms
1. alarm. See terror.

panic2

[pan-ik] /ˈpæn ɪk/
noun
1.
Also called panic grass. any grass of the genus Panicum, many species of which bear edible grain.
2.
the grain.
Origin
1375-1425; late Middle English < Latin pānicum a kind of millet
Examples from the web for panic
  • In financial markets too, it is better to avert panic than to try to pacify it.
  • German orthodoxy ignores the possibility that rising bond yields are being driven by a self-fulfilling panic in financial markets.
  • Or to use an old-fashioned term that has come back into common use, it triggered a financial panic.
  • In emergencies, people don't panic.
  • The pall soon turns to panic as, one by one, Ruco's top executives meet with suspicious ends.
  • To add to the puzzle, panic attacks in healthy people occur out of the blue.
  • The group was so lost it couldn't figure out how to backtrack and started to panic.
  • During his early years, I used to panic about telling people the truth about how delayed he was.
  • Despite government appeals for people not to panic, many shops saw bottled water supplies flying off the shelves.
  • And with that realization, panic set in.
British Dictionary definitions for panic

panic

/ˈpænɪk/
noun
1.
a sudden overwhelming feeling of terror or anxiety, esp one affecting a whole group of people
2.
(modifier) of or resulting from such terror: panic measures
verb -ics, -icking, -icked
3.
to feel or cause to feel panic
Derived Forms
panicky, adjective
Word Origin
C17: from French panique, from New Latin pānicus, from Greek panikos emanating from Pan, considered as the source of irrational fear

Panic

/ˈpænɪk/
adjective
1.
of or relating to the god Pan
Word Origin and History for panic
n.

"mass terror," 1708, from earlier adjective (c.1600, modifying fear, terror, etc.), from French panique (15c.), from Greek panikon, literally "pertaining to Pan," the god of woods and fields, who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.

In the sense of "panic, fright" the Greek word is short for panikon deima "panic fright," from neuter of Panikos "of Pan." Meaning "widespread apprehension about financial matters" is first recorded 1757. Panic button in figurative sense is first recorded 1955, the literal sense apparently is from parachuting. Panic attack attested by 1970.

type of grass, early 15c., from Old French panic "Italian millet," from Latin panicum "panic grass, kind of millet," from panus "ear of millet, a swelling" (cf. panocha).

v.

1827, "to afflict with panic," from panic (n.). Intransitive sense of "to lose one's head, get into a panic" is from 1902. Related: Panicked; panicking.

panic in Medicine

panic pan·ic (pān'ĭk)
n.
A sudden overpowering feeling of terror.

pan'ic v.
Slang definitions & phrases for panic

panic

noun

A very funny person; an effective comedian; a STITCH (1924+)

verb
  1. To become frightened and confused, esp suddenly; flip: He panicked and dropped the ball (1910+)
  2. To get a strong favorable reaction, esp to get loud laughter from an audience; fracture: Mr Todd knows how to panic the rubes (1920+)

panic in Technology

1. What Unix does when a critical internal consistency checks fails in such a way that Unix cannot continue. The kernel attempts to print a short message on the console and write an image of memory into the swap area on disk. This can be analysed later using adb. The kernel will then either wait in a tight loop until the machine is rebooted or will initiate an automatic reboot.
Unix manual page: panic(8).
2. Action taken by software which discovers some fatal problem which prevents it from continuing to run.
(1995-03-01)
Idioms and Phrases with panic

panic

see: push the panic button