panhandle

¹ American  

[pan-han-dl] / ˈpænˌhæn dl /

noun

• panhandles
  plural

1. the handle of a pan.

2. (sometimes initial capital letter) a long, narrow, projecting strip of territory that is not a peninsula, especially such a part of a specified state.

   the panhandle of Alaska; the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.

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panhandle ² American  

[pan-han-dl] / ˈpænˌhæn dl /

verb (used without object)

• panhandles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• panhandled,
  past participle,  past
• panhandling
  present participle

1. to accost passers-by on the street, riders on the subway, motorists stopped at red lights, etc., and beg from them.

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verb (used with object)

• panhandles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• panhandled,
  past participle,  past
• panhandling
  present participle

1. to accost and beg from.

2. to obtain by accosting and begging from someone.

panhandle ¹ British  

/ ˈpænˌhændəl /

noun

1. (sometimes capital) (in the US) a narrow strip of land that projects from one state into another

2. (in a South African city) a plot of land without street frontage

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panhandle ² British  

/ ˈpænˌhændəl /

verb

1. informal to accost and beg from (passers-by), esp on the street

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• panhandler
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• panhandles
  plural

Participles

• panhandling
  present
• panhandled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• panhandle
  simple
• panhandles
  simple
• have panhandled
  perfect
• has panhandled
  perfect
• am panhandling
  progressive
• are panhandling
  progressive
• is panhandling
  progressive
• have been panhandling
  perfect progressive
• has been panhandling
  perfect progressive

Past

• panhandled
  simple
• had panhandled
  perfect
• was panhandling
  progressive
• were panhandling
  progressive
• had been panhandling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will panhandle
  simple
• will have panhandled
  perfect
• will be panhandling
  progressive
• will have been panhandling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of panhandle¹

First recorded in 1855–60; pan ¹ + handle

Origin of panhandle²

An Americanism first recorded in 1885–90; so called from the resemblance of the extended arm to a panhandle ¹

Explanation

To panhandle is to beg for money outside, on a public street. Someone who needs money to buy a bus ticket home might panhandle. When people panhandle, they ask passers-by for cash. A man who's lost his job might panhandle so he can get something to eat. and a college student might panhandle on a busy street for money to buy a ticket to a concert. Panhandle is also a noun meaning a long, thin geographical area that's shaped like the handle of a frying pan. Both meanings date from the mid-19th century.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

panhandle panhandles panhandled panhandling

The mockingbird, however, is easily spotted in his panhandle district.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

Department of Homeland Security quietly bought an 825,000-square-foot warehouse in the state’s conservative western panhandle.

From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2026

Brenen Thompson is from Spearman, Texas, at the top of the panhandle, where the gusts are constant and the only tourist attraction is a collection of old windmills.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026

In the age of artificial intelligence, it turns out that owning 5,700 acres of land in the Texas panhandle can outweigh having no revenue to speak of.

From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2025

That afternoon, Cade Hernandez and I traversed the desolate panhandle of Texas and crossed over the line into Oklahoma.

From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith

Another man said his friend, who regularly panhandles on a busy street, has been missing since the takeover began.

From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2025

She panhandles in Tijuana to make a few pesos, not enough to help her impoverished family back home.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2019

For the fourth consecutive day, tornadoes strafed the middle of the country Thursday, this time concentrated in sparsely populated panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas.

From Fox News ● May 24, 2019

A tornado threat was stalking the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2019

Distribution.—Western and southern Colorado, southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona and northern New Mexico, east to the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and to southwestern Kansas.

From Geographic Variation in the Harvest Mouse, Reithrodontomys megalotis, On the Central Great Plains And in Adjacent Regions by J. Knox Jones

“She’d panhandled on the street but she gave most of her money away.”

From The Guardian ● Mar. 8, 2020

To some, it’s where local homeless people panhandled harmlessly.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2019

She rehabilitated a homeless man who panhandled outside the shop, and he became a model salesman.

From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2018

He panhandled for candy money around Georgetown University.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2016

The underground staff scoured the countryside for paper and other supplies and panhandled on the streets of Manila for money.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

“When neighborhoods are plagued by issues such as aggressive panhandling, unruly street vending, public urination, abandoned vehicles, it gives the impression of an unsafe community,” Ms. Tisch said in January.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

Sprawled on a sidewalk near a freeway on-ramp, a man calling himself “Rabbit” was panhandling for money accompanied by his two beagle-pit bull mixes, Pooh Bear and Piglet.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2025

While camping, aggressive panhandling, and other actions are currently illegal in D.C.,

From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2025

In addition, there are rule changes on "panhandling, discrimination, consuming outside alcohol and vaping."

From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2025

“Umm...right, so the house went into foreclosure in 2009. That’s a year before he was spotted panhandling in the city.”

From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone