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panade

dire straits, mess

noun pah-NAHD Rare
Descriptions & Qualities Conditions

Origin: Old French pain (bread) + -ade; originally a soup of stale bread

Also means

bread soup (archaic)

Usage Note

Panade has largely shed its culinary origin and now functions as informal slang meaning a bad situation or financial trouble — close to 'being in a pickle'. The expression être dans la panade ('to be in a mess') is the most common use a learner will encounter. The literal bread-soup sense still appears in old recipes.

Examples

"Depuis son licenciement, il est dans la panade."

Natural Translation

Since his redundancy, he's in dire straits.

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