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Synonyms

frying pan

American  
Also fry-pan,

noun

  • frying pans
    plural
  1. a shallow, long-handled pan in which food is fried.


idioms

  1. out of the frying pan into the fire, free of one predicament but immediately in a worse one.

frying pan British  

noun

  1. a long-handled shallow pan used for frying

  2. from a bad situation to a worse one

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of frying pan

1350–1400; Middle English fryinge panne

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

A frying pan was recovered from a bin on St George's Road.

From BBC Jun. 18, 2026

Weather that swings from deep freeze to frying pan.

From Barron's Apr. 14, 2026

Yet the country may be launching out of the frying pan and into the fire.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 13, 2026

Inside Dorothy’s Kansan house, a once-shadowed frying pan on the wall now dangles front and center, as does a digitally added “Home Sweet Home” needlepoint nailed to the threshold.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 3, 2025

He scooped eggs from the frying pan onto a plate and poured himself water through the fancy push-this-lever-and-water-comes-out refrigerator.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green

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