See also: Pancake

English

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U.S. style pancakes.

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle English pancake, panne cake, pankake, ponkake, equivalent to pan +‎ cake. Perhaps adapted from Middle Low German pankôke, pannekôke, from Old Saxon *pannakōko (suggested by derivatives Old Saxon pannakōkilo and pannakōkilīn), where the compound is much older; compare Old High German phankuohho (8th century), whence Middle High German phankuoche, German Pfannkuchen (pancake); further Saterland Frisian Ponkouke, Ponkuuke (pancake), West Frisian pankoek (pancake), Dutch pannenkoek (pancake), German Low German Pannkook (pancake). The juggling sense is by analogy with a pancake being tossed in a pan.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈpæn.keɪk/, /ˈpæŋ.keɪk/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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pancake (countable and uncountable, plural pancakes)

  1. (countable and uncountable) A thin batter cake fried in a pan or on a griddle in oil or butter; in particular:
    1. In England, an often unleavened cake similar to a crepe.
    2. In the US (and e.g. Scotland), a leavened, thicker, fluffier cake.
      • 2001, Alice A. Deck, ““Now Then—Who Said Biscuits?” The Black Woman Cook as Fetish in American Advertising, 1905–1953”, in Sherrie A. Inness, editor, Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 88:
        Mrs. America is holding a plate of pancakes in one hand and a fork with a slice of pancake in the other.
  2. (uncountable, theater) A kind of makeup, consisting of a thick layer of a compressed powder.
    • 1984 April 14, Freddie Greenfield, “Spoiling the View”, in Gay Community News, page 19:
      And us, me wearing pancake with my eyebrows recently plucked archly, done by Little Amber, the beauty-school student quean, in Bryant Park.
  3. (countable, juggling) A type of throw, usually with a ring where the prop is thrown in such a way that it rotates round an axis of the diameter of the prop.
    • 2004, Beinn Muir <bm260@nospam4me.cam.ac.uk>, “Ring juggling: pancake throws”, in rec.juggling[1] (Usenet):
      have been working on pancake throws with rings for the past few months and I have been trying to make the throws perfectly spun and as consistent as possible.
  4. (countable) Anything very thin and flat.
    • 2004, William H. Cropper, Great Physicists:
      Most of the electrons would pass through the hadron pancake with no interaction, but a few would collide []
  5. (uncountable) Composite leather made of scraps, glue and board, by extension of (4), material originally used for insoles, but later used also for heels and even soles.
    • 1903, Davis Rich Dewey, Twelfth Census of the United States: Special report: Employees and Wages, page 1200:
      &hellip in the poorer grades the heel is made of scrap leather and leather board or pulp, finished with a solid leather top lift. The composite material, called pancake, is made by an operative, usually a girl, called a pancake-maker; it is used sometimes for soles as well as heels.
  6. (countable, film, slang) A box on which an actor stands to make them appear taller.
  7. (countable, volleyball) A defensive play in which the ball bounces off the top of a hand that has been pressed flat against the floor.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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Translations

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Verb

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pancake (third-person singular simple present pancakes, present participle pancaking, simple past and past participle pancaked)

  1. (intransitive) To make a pancake landing.
  2. (construction, demolition) To collapse one floor after another.
  3. (transitive) To flatten violently.
    • 2011, Joseph Wambaugh, Floaters:
      Poor old Sleepy suffered from an on-duty head injury he'd got by chasing a Corvette on a police motorcycle, ending up like a pancaked roadkill with half his scalp flapping in the backwash of freeway commuters []
  4. (intransitive) To lie out flat, like a pancake; sploot.

See also

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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pancake m (plural pancakes)

  1. pancake

Further reading

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From panne (pan) +‎ cake. Perhaps adapted from Middle Low German pankôke, pannekôke; see pancake.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pancake

  1. pancake (kind of fried cake)

Descendants

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References

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Portuguese

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Noun

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pancake f (plural pancakes)

  1. Dated form of panqueca.