pancake
Meanings
- A thin batter cake fried in a pan or on a griddle in oil or butter; in particular:
- In England, an often unleavened cake similar to a crepe.
- In the US (and e.g. Scotland), a leavened, thicker, fluffier cake.
- A kind of makeup, consisting of a thick layer of a compressed powder.
- 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.
- Anything very thin and flat.
- 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.
- A box on which an actor stands to make them appear taller.
- A defensive play in which the ball bounces off the top of a hand that has been pressed flat against the floor.
- An attractive young woman.
- To make a pancake landing.
- To collapse one floor after another.
- To flatten violently.
- To lie out flat, like a pancake; sploot.
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *pannǭ Proto-West Germanic *pannā Old English panne Middle English panne Proto-Germanic *kakǭ Old Norse kakabor. Middle English cake Middle English panne cake English pancake Inherited from Middle English pancake, panne cake, pankake, ponkake. By surface analysis, 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.