[f. FRYING vbl. sb.]
1. A shallow pan, usually of iron, with a long handle, in which food is fried.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Chron. xxiii. 29. The prestis … to the fryinge panne [Vulg. ad sartaginem].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxviii. (1495), 936. Sartago the fryenge panne hath that name of the noys that is therin whan oyle brennyth therin.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 129. Item, for a frying pane, x.d.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, III. iii. (1634), 167. That that remaineth, fry it together in a Frying panne with Suger.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. v. 58. Aboundance of fish, lying so thicke with their heads aboue the water, as for want of nets (our barge driuing amongst them) we attempted to catch them with a frying pan: but we found it a bad instrument to catch fish with.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), V. 38.
| When Candlesticks do serve for Bells, | |
| And Frying-Pans they do use for Ladles; | |
| When in the Sea they dig for Wells, | |
| And Porridge-pots they use for Cradles. |
1806. Culina, 218. Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan … pour in the above preparation.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xxvii. 564. In the lines of dark-green massive trees along the watercourses, sang swarms of cicadæ, with a stridulous chorus, which at spots resembled the noise of fifty fryingpans in active operation.
fig. 1602. Narcissus (1893), 643.
| Cli. O frieng panne of all fritters of fraud, | |
| My scindifer, that longe hath beene vndrawde. |
1616–61. Holyday, Persius (1673), 296.
| Can’st thou not quickly reach | |
| To know the cause how this our vile disgrace, | |
| This hissing Frying-pan of Speach took place | |
| First, in our Tongues? |
b. Phrase (To jump, leap, etc.) out of the frying-pan into the fire: to escape from one evil only to fall into a greater one.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 488/2. [He] featly conuayed himself out of the frying panne fayre into the fyre.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1874), 126. Leape out of the frying pan into the fyre; and change from il paine to worse.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, I. vi. (1614), 32. Like … the foolish fish that leapeth out of the frying pan into the fire.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., I. (1721), 32. Priest-craft got the Ascendant at Rome, and then Men were—out of the Frying Pan into the Fire.
1890. Guardian, 1 Oct., 1507/3. If they thought they could get away from the State by disestablishment, they would find that they were jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire.
2. attrib. and Comb., as frying-pan maker; frying-pan brand (Austral.), ‘a large brand used by cattle-stealers to cover the owner’s brand’ (Morris); frying-pan plate, ? a piece of tin-plate cut out to be made into a frying-pan.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., ix. 335. Nine fryingpan-plates being commonly laid upon one another, and claspt together by turning up 4 Labells. Ibid., 336. There are but two Master Frying-pan makers … in the whole Kingdom.
1857. F. De B. Cooper, Wild Adv. Austral., 104. This person … got into some trouble … by using a ‘frying-pan brand.’
