Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The handle of a pan; hence, a long narrow strip projecting like the handle of a frying-pan.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun fig., fig. The handle of a pan
  • intransitive verb To accost people in a public place and ask for money; to beg.
  • transitive verb to obtain by panhandling.
  • transitive verb To accost in a public place and ask for money from.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The handle of a pan.
  • noun cartography (US) On a map, where a part of a political entity forms a longish extension such that it resembles the handle of a pan, as with a frying pan.
  • verb US To beg for money, especially with a container in hand for receiving loose change, especially on the street, and particularly, by a bum.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb beg by accosting people in the street and asking for money
  • noun a relatively narrow strip of land projecting from some larger area
  • noun the handle of a pan

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pan + handle

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probable back-formation from panhandler.

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Examples

  • If the Florida panhandle is the Redneck Riviera, this is the Redneck Aspen.

    drewspace 2005

  • Even if the premature television calls affected all potential voters equally, the effect was to reduce Republican votes significantly, because the Florida panhandle is a Republican stronghold.

    Think Progress » Katrina Speech: State and Local Officials Blamed, Not Listened To 2005

  • Every single election everyone seems to have the epiphany that the panhandle is still voting as they're trotting out the news that the polls are closed. gyges1

    Obama’s Florida Bet - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • The FL panhandle is on central time (from what I understand) and, coicindentaly of course, also happens to be more conservative.

    Sound Politics: What to Expect Today: Exit Polls 2006

  • About an hour before the polls closed in panhandle Florida, the networks called the U.S.

    Think Progress » Katrina Speech: State and Local Officials Blamed, Not Listened To 2005

  • Compare that to the northern part of the state from Orlando to Jacksonville and across to Pensacola, which tends to run to the far more conservative old style Deep South side of the aisle (the panhandle is sometimes referred to as Lower Alabama) with its large rural areas and middle-class retirees who are deeply suspicious of anything that smells slightly of progressivism beyond 1948.

    December 2005 2005

  • SYNOPSIS: During the 1950's a deteriorating political situation in Laos had allowed NVA troops and Pathet Lao guerrillas to seize the Laotian panhandle from the Royal Lao Army.

    Boyles, Howard R. Jr. 1991

  • SYNOPSIS: During the 1950's a deteriorating political situation in Laos had allowed NVA troops and Pathet Lao guerrillas to seize the Laotian panhandle from the Royal Lao Army.

    Cavil, Jack W. 1991

  • SYNOPSIS: During the 1950's a deteriorating political situation in Laos had allowed NVA troops and Pathet Lao guerrillas to seize the Laotian panhandle from the Royal Lao Army.

    Hagerman, Robert W. 1990

  • SYNOPSIS: During the 1950's a deteriorating political situation in Laos had allowed NVA troops and Pathet Lao guerrillas to seize the Laotian panhandle from the Royal Lao Army.

    Cheney, Joseph C. 1990

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