pander

American  

[pan-der] / ˈpæn dər /

verb (used without object)

• panders,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pandered,
  past participle,  past
• pandering
  present participle

1. to cater to or profit from the weaknesses or vices of others.

   to pander to the vile tastes of the vulgar masses.

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verb (used with object)

• panders,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pandered,
  past participle,  past
• pandering
  present participle

1. to act as a pimp or procurer of clients for (a prostitute).

noun

1. a panderer.

pander British  

/ ˈpændə /

verb

1. to give gratification (to weaknesses or desires)

2. (archaic when tr) to act as a go-between in a sexual intrigue (for)

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noun

1. a person who caters for vulgar desires, esp in order to make money

2. a person who procures a sexual partner for another; pimp

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• panderage
  noun
• panderism
  noun
• panderly
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• pandering
  present
• pandered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pander
  simple
• panders
  simple
• have pandered
  perfect
• has pandered
  perfect
• am pandering
  progressive
• are pandering
  progressive
• is pandering
  progressive
• have been pandering
  perfect progressive
• has been pandering
  perfect progressive

Past

• pandered
  simple
• had pandered
  perfect
• was pandering
  progressive
• were pandering
  progressive
• had been pandering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pander
  simple
• will have pandered
  perfect
• will be pandering
  progressive
• will have been pandering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of pander

First recorded in 1325–75; earlier pandar(e), generalized use of Middle English name Pandare Pandarus

Explanation

If a campaigning politician wants to pander to a crowd of pet owners, he might deliver a speech while embracing his own pet poodle. To pander is to appease or gratify, and often in a negative, self-serving way. The word pander began its infamous history as the name of various characters. Pandaro was a character in Boccaccio’s Filostrato. Pandarus was a character in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, as well as in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. These literary works all tell the tale of star-crossed lovers, and the namesake of pander is, essentially, a go-between whose motives don't seem entirely pure.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pander panders pandered pandering

Wearing a headband, speaking in a strained attempt at hip lingo and calling himself Raww, the creature seems proudly to pander to the audience.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The whole affair was tawdry, shabby, and cheap—designed to pander to downwardly mobile young men who felt angry at the world.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026

But the jury is out on whether Warsh will "pander to the president" if persistent inflation called for higher rates, he added.

From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 2026

And is anyone calling for those to be shortened to pander to the attention span of younger audiences?

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025

The man was just a singer, a pander with a lute and a false smile.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

“Skilled comedians craft material that brings the audience to them, while AI panders to the masses,” said John Poveromo, host of the “Dystopia Tonight” podcast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2023

Critics also say the shoey panders too much to stereotypes which don't reflect modern Australia.

From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2023

Despite the strengths of Monk's character, the episode's ending feels tacked-on and panders to a non-disabled audience, where a disabled character is "fixed."

From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2022

The characters were developed in a way that honors audiences rather than panders to them.

From The Verge ● Nov. 19, 2021

Fifthly, it panders to those who talk of prestige and think that prestige depends upon the size of a nation’s armaments.

From Essays in Liberalism Being the Lectures and Papers Which Were Delivered at the Liberal Summer School at Oxford, 1922 by Various

We don’t need to be pandered to with short-form content depicting people four times our age using our slang incorrectly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

She said she wasn't aware of media criticism of the show as "woke" and and thought a headline saying it "pandered to woke culture" was "cute".

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2025

This is despite a lack of films featuring Latinos, which I think speaks to another overlooked fact: Latinos don’t need to be pandered to.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

The more time I spent with Roderick in that life-sucking catacomb as he obsequiously pandered to his Jackie, the more I began to see the cracks in her fading infatuation.

From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2022

Everywhere, school administrators pandered and panicked, rushing to show they were highly sensitive to parents’ fears, even if they were oblivious to the needs and problems of many of their students.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

“Practical Magic 2” is an exercise in girl-power pandering in which the Owenses, three pairs of sisters from the same family of witches, live gingerly on an idyllic Massachusetts island.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

“The experience of being Arab and Muslim has been to be the object of hate by one party and the subject of pandering by another. Both of them are alienating,” he said.

From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2026

She'd grown weary of pandering to pop tropes of the "strong, independent female"; and wanted to present a "more honest and vulnerable" version of herself.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026

In turn, an expanding roster of immersive, cinematic TV made the medium’s cheesy jingles and pandering copy look and sound discordant.

From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026

Ricky considered Luke for another second before glancing back to Doreen, a pandering smile on his face.

From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss