panhandle

noun

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.

verb (used without object), pan·han·dled, pan·han·dling.

1. to accost passers-by on the street and beg from them.

verb (used with object), pan·han·dled, pan·han·dling.

2. to accost and beg from.
3. to obtain by accosting and begging from someone.

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

verb

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

n.“something resembling the handle of a pan,” 1851, from pan (n.) + handle (n.). Especially in reference to geography, originally American English, from 1856, in reference to Virginia (now West Virginia; Florida, Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Alaska also have them). Meaning “an act of begging” is attested from 1849, perhaps from notion of arm stuck out like a panhandle, or of one who handles a (beggar’s) pan. v.“to beg,” 1888, from panhandle (n.) in the begging sense. Related: Panhandled; panhandling.