1846 Southern Planter Mar. 66/1 This advice..is dictated by the warmest wishes for the prosperity of our native State [sc. Virginia], from the Pan Handle to the Carolina line.

1849 J. J. Hooper in Spirit of Times 14 Apr. 87/3 The elephant was the great point of attraction. ‘I want his hide and frame for a corn crib,’ said a fellow from the Pan-Handle Beat.

1856 Porter's Spirit of Times 8 Nov. 159/1 He was from old Virginny—from what, he said, they called the Pan-handle.

1862 Congress. Globe 11 Feb. 754/3 I want to compare the district of Mr. Segar with the Wheeling district. One is called the pan-handle of the East, and the other the pan-handle of the West.

1888 Missouri Republican 24 Feb. in J. S. Farmer Americanisms (1889) 408/1 The Panhandle of Texas offers desirable homes to a million of people, at a nominal price.

1905 Boston Transcript 7 Nov. 22 Physically, socially, and politically Panama is a panhandle, a remote, slightly connected appanage of Columbia.

1952 B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. iv. 33 Jack Teagarden, a big burly Texan with an infectious Panhandle accent in his singing.

1960 20th Cent. Mar. 248 The ‘panhandle’ of North Wiltshire near Lechlade.

2002 Daily Tel. 13 June 15/1 By a historical accident..the capital of Alaska is stranded in Juneau, in the state's far south-eastern ‘panhandle’.

1894 Harper's Weekly 5 May 429/2 ‘Workin' the pan-handle.’ ‘Eh?’ ‘I mean, are you beggin'?’

1900 G. Ade More Fables 142 He usually found some one waiting on the Door-Step to give him the Sign of Distress and work the fraternal Pan-Handle on him.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §486/2 A solicitation,..panhandle.

1890 Cent. Dict. Panhandle, the handle of a pan.

1922 K. Dunlap Elem. Sci. Psychol. viii. 166 In imagining the ‘feel’ of the pan handle, and weight of the pan, (a) hold the hand and arm rigid; (b) let the hand and arm be at ease.

1966 Times 8 June 15/1 You need work surfaces on both sides of the cooker for putting down hot heavy pans... (They also help to keep pan handles out of harm's way.)

1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 7 Mar. vi. 60/1 Shift the pan handle in the left hand, tilt it and snap it against the stove quickly so that the omelet slides down.

1890 Colorado Springs Gaz. 21 Sept. 2/3 He has a kind word for the apprentices always, to whom at least he is a great man..who has in his time ‘panhandled’ every office in the land.

1900 Star of Hope 21 Apr. 23/2 Don't—panhandle another's tobacco when you have yours planted in your cell.

1903 A. H. Lewis Boss 291 He's on his uppers, goin' about panhandlin' old chums for a five-dollar bill.

1932 L. C. Douglas Forgive us our Trespasses xiv. 276 It's never been in a suppliant attitude, panhandling the brethren and sisters for sixpences to pay the parson's coal-bill.

1976 Yellowstone Explorer July 1/3 The absence of bears along the park's roads is a major concern of visitors, especially those who were here just a few years ago and saw literally dozens of bears panhandling picnic items from passing cars.

1990 Holiday Which? Mar. 74/2 A large, dreadlocked black man panhandles the outside tables of a Greenwich Village café.

1894 Weekly Herald-Disp. (Decatur, Illinois) 17 Mar. 8/6 The pair had panhandled—gone from house to house to beg something to eat.

1908 J. M. Sullivan Criminal Slang 17 Punk kid, a boy who begs and panhandles for yeggmen.

1951 W. C. Williams Autobiogr. xxxi. 180 He panhandled it through the farms doing a few chores here and there.

1973 ‘A. Blaisdell’ Crime by Chance (1974) ix. 173 I ain't had a bite to eat since yesterday. I was in that bar panhandlin'.

2002 Mirror (East York–Riverdale, Ont.) 8 Nov. 9/1 It's these chilly days that remind me of Joanne and her counterparts panhandling along the Danforth.