frying pan

American  

Also fry-pan,

noun

• frying pans
  plural

1. a shallow, long-handled pan in which food is fried.

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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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• frying pans
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of frying pan

1350–1400; Middle English fryinge panne

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Compare meaning

How does frying-pan compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• saucepan vs. frying pan

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

frying pan

"It's like he's being taken out of the frying pan and into the fryer," he said.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

The miracle everyone pulls off is making a poisonous relationship dryly hilarious, even if every civilized exchange eventually becomes a figurative frying pan flying through the air.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

I know that’s not easy to predict, but it does seem like an “out of the frying pan, into the fire” sort of situation.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026

Weather that swings from deep freeze to frying pan.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

“Well then don’t get mad at her if she never does what you ask her to do,” Bertha harped, stirring some flour into a gravy base in a frying pan on the stove.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

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