- panic
- ▪ I. panic pan‧ic 1 [ˈpænɪk] noun [countable, uncountable]1. a feeling of great fear and anxiety that makes you act without thinking:
• The stock market crash left an air of panic from which many individual investors still haven't recovered.
• By announcing future price increases, the administration touched off a consumer panic.
2. panic buying/selling/trading when people are so anxious or worried about the future that they buy or sell goods, shares etc without thinking carefully first:• Manila shares plunged 10.9% in panic selling.
• At a supermarket in Brussels, panic buying got so furious that the managers stopped trying to put sugar, coffee and mineral water on the shelves.
[m0] ▪ II. panic panic 2 verb panicked PTandPP panicking PRESPART [intransitive, transitive]to suddenly become so frightened and anxious that you do things without thinking clearly, or to make someone do this:• Financial markets panicked, causing a run on the currency (= causing the currency to lose a lot of its value ) .
• Crowds of depositors, many panicked by fears they would lose their life savings, formed outside the banks.
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Ⅰ.panic UK US /ˈpænɪk/ noun [C or U]► a sudden strong feeling of fear that prevents reasonable thought and action: panic about/over sth »There is no cause for panic about oil prices.
a state/wave of panic »The government was in a state of panic.
cause/trigger panic »The drop in prices could cause panic among investors.
»There is no sense of panic yet or any feeling that this is the start of a long-term decline in the pound.
Ⅱ.panic UK US /ˈpænɪk/ verb [I or T] (panicking, panicked, panicked)► to suddenly feel so worried or frightened that you cannot think or behave reasonably, or to cause someone to feel this: »There is no need for home buyers to panic.
panic about/over sth »Should people with savings panic about the safety of their money?
»Oil producers were panicked by the drop in oil prices.
panic sb into doing sth »The delay in consumer spending means that shops may be panicked into cutting prices.
Ⅲ.panic UK US /ˈpænɪk/ adjective [before noun]► resulting from a feeling of panic: panic buying/selling »Panic buying has led to fears that almost half the gas stations could run out of fuel by tomorrow.
a panic measure/reaction »The private meeting was a panic reaction to the news of the merger.
Financial and business terms. 2012.
