panel

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A flat, usually rectangular piece forming a raised, recessed, or framed part of the surface in which it is set.
• noun The space or section in a fence or railing between two posts.
• noun A vertical section of fabric; a gore.
• noun A thin wooden board, used as a surface for an oil painting.
• noun A painting on such a board.
• noun A board having switches or buttons to control an electric device.
• noun An instrument panel.
• noun A section of a telephone switchboard.
• noun A cartoon drawing in a sequence of cartoons that form a narrative.
• noun The complete list of persons summoned for jury duty.
• noun Those persons chosen from this list to constitute a pool from which a jury or juries will be selected for a particular court.
• noun A jury.
• noun A group of people gathered to plan or discuss an issue, judge a contest, or act as a team on a radio or television quiz program.
• noun A discussion by such a group.
• transitive verb To cover or furnish with panels.
• transitive verb To decorate with panels.
• transitive verb To separate into panels.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To place a panel or saddlecloth on; saddle.
• To form with panels; divide into or decorate with panels: as, to panel a wainscot; to panel a dress.
• To decorate with medallions or spaces of any shape framed and occupied by a design different from that of the rest of the ground.
• In telegraphy, to arrange in parallel, as wires.
• noun A heap of dressed ore.
• noun A piece, especially a rectangular piece, as of cloth, parchment, or wood.
• noun Formerly, the slip of parchment containing the names of those who were summoned to serve upon a jury; a jury-list. See def. 3.
• noun In painting, a piece of wood, generally of oak, chestnut, or white poplar, on which a picture is painted as on canvas; also, a picture painted on such a piece of wood. The earliest paintings in oil were generally executed on panels, which were composed of various pieces of wood cemented together.
• noun A surface or compartment of a surface more or less distinct from others: a term used more especially in architecture and the constructive arts.
• noun In joinery, a tympanum or thin piece of wood, framed or received in a groove by two upright pieces or styles, and two transverse pieces or rails: as, the panels of doors, window-shutters, etc. See cut under door.
• noun In masonry, one of the faces of a hewn stone.
• noun In dress-making, an ornament of a skirt, consisting usually of a broad piece of stuff appliqué, or of embroidery, or the like, making a definite stripe on each side different from the rest of the skirt, leaving part of the original material between.
• noun In bookbinding, a part of the side depressed below the general surface, or the space on the back between two bands.
• noun In coal-mining, a separate compartment or area of a coal-seam, divided from the adjacent ones by thick masses or ribs of coal, 40, 50, or even 60 yards wide. Such panels may measure 300 feet or more on a side.
• noun In law: The persons summoned to sit on a jury.
• noun The jury selected for the trial of a cause.
• noun In scots law, the accused person in a criminal action from the time of his appearance.
• noun The stomach of a hawk.
• noun Milit., a carriage for the transportation of a mortar and its bed.
• noun In sporting, a rail in a post-and-rail fence.
• noun In carpentry, a panel whose longer dimension is horizontal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To form in or with panels.
• transitive verb (Arch.) the paneled work covering the window back. See Window back.
• noun (Arch.) A sunken compartment with raised margins, molded or otherwise, as in ceilings, wainscotings, etc.
• noun A piece of parchment or a schedule, containing the names of persons summoned as jurors by the sheriff
• noun (Scots Law) A prisoner arraigned for trial at the bar of a criminal court.