panda

noun

1. 1

   archaicThe red panda (Ailurus fulgens), a small raccoon-like animal of northeast Asia with reddish fur and a long, ringed tail.

2. 2

   Variant of giant pandaEllipsis of giant panda (“Ailuropoda melanoleuca”).

3. 3

   Variant of panda carEllipsis of panda car (“a black-and-white police car”).

   Before the confrontation, the youth sighted a police personnel carrier, two dog patrol vans, a motorway style car, at least two pandas and one unmarked police car.

noun

1. 1

   A brahmin who acts as the hereditary superintendent of a particular ghat or temple, and is regarded as knowledgeable in matters of genealogy and ritual.

   There are therefore in this district no Varna or degraded Brahmans nor are those at all disgraced who officiate in any temple as Pandas.

   The pilgrims are required first to bathe in the Marnikarnika Kund (or tank) near the ghât of that name, taking with them flowers and uncooked rice. [...] [T]hey must make presents to the pandas, who are certain privileged hereditary Brahmins. Whilst the pilgrim is in the water, the pandas repeat some Sanscrit verses; [...]

   I may be man of commerce in your eyes, Miss—and in this age of evil, who is not?—but are you aware that eleven generations of my ancestors have been pandas at one of Nabadwip's most famous temples?

   Trouble broke out at Kalighat temple on Monday morning after police barred pandas from near the sanctum sanctorum. Angry pandas, some armed with sticks, allegedly assaulted members of the temple committee. [...] Temple sources said the cop crackdown was a knee-jerk reaction to a complaint filed by an NRI [non-resident Indian] woman on Sunday against the pandas.

Forms

plural

pandas