panic

noun7

1. •
   fear so strong that people or animals cannot control it, often spreading through a group

   • It's Christmas at ground zero There's panic in the crowd We can dodge debris While we trim the tree Underneath a mushroom cloud — 1986
2. •
   A rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.

   • "I thought you inherited your money." "I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war." — 1925
3. •
   Ellipsis of kernel panic (“on Unix-derived operating systems: an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal error”); (by extension) any computer system crash.
4. •
   (US, informal) A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.
5. •
   Foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.
6. •
   A plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass.

   • There be sundrie sorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hathe beene set downe but two, that is to say, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: […] — 1597
7. •
   The edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.

verb5

1. •
   To cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.

   • He told us he'd almost stepped on Ellen's body that night—dead and stiffening. Then I'd come round the corner and hailed him, and that panicked him. — 1927
2. •
   To feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.

   • I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act. — 2019
3. •
   To cause (a computer system) to crash.
4. •
   Of a computer system: to crash.
5. •
   (US, informal) To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).

adjective2

1. •
   Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.

   • So long as Epaminondas was captaine general of the Thebans, there was never seene in his campe any of these sudden foolish frights, without any certeine cause, which they call Panique Terrores. — 1603
2. •
   Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.

   • No Dangers threatned, but they smil'd to meet The pannick French-men trembling at their Feet. — 1705

adjective1

1. •
   (no longer used) Synonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).