fan

Less common meanings

5. 5
   spread outverbintransitive

   To spread out, or to spread things out, in different directions from a single point, like an opened hand fan.

   Search teams fan out across the valley at first light.

   The delta's channels fanned out toward the sea.

   UsageUsually fan out: search teams fan out across a valley, roads fan out from a square.

   Similarspread, radiate, branch, disperse, diverge

   Oppositeconverge, gather

   Note

   The picture is the opened fan shape set in motion. Usually the spreading things are the subject (the troops fanned out across the field), but you can also fan something yourself, as when a player fans the cards in her hand.

6. 6
   stir upverbfigurativelytransitive

   To make something grow stronger or more intense, as moving air makes flames burn higher.

   The editorial fanned long-simmering resentment in the town.

   Bold promises only fan hopes that may never be met.

   UsageSet phrase: fan the flames of anger or conflict; it fans hopes, fears or resentment already there.

   Similarstoke, inflame, fuel, kindle, stir

   Oppositedampen, quell, allay, defuse

   Note

   A figurative use built on the fireside image of air feeding a flame. Arthur Symons writes in Love's Cruelty (1923), "She comes, to fan my ardour." The verb strengthens something already smoldering rather than starting it from nothing. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The figurative sense draws on the image of fanning flames. en.wiktionary.org
   • Arthur Symons's Love's Cruelty was first published in 1923. carcanet.co.uk
   • Arthur Symons wrote the quoted words in Love's Cruelty. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   strike outverbtransitive

   In baseball, to strike out a batter, or (of a batter) to strike out.

   She fanned the cleanup hitter with a wicked curveball.

   Top pitchers regularly fan the league's best sluggers.

   Note

   Here the pitcher is the subject and the batter the object: she fanned the cleanup hitter. Sportswriting uses it as a brisk alternative to "struck out," and the number of batters a pitcher fans is his strikeout count. Grammar separates the two baseball uses, since the sentence shows who did the fanning and who was fanned. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • A pitcher's strikeout count records the batters the pitcher strikes out. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   one waving motionnouncountable

   A stirring or movement of the air produced by fanning.

   When the coals began to fade, he gave them a vigorous fan with a paper plate until they glowed red again.

   Every few minutes she gave the sleeping baby a gentle fan with a folded newspaper to keep him cool.

   Similarwave, flutter, waft

9. 9
   rapid-fire (gun)verbtransitive

   To rapidly fire an old-style revolver by repeatedly striking back the hammer with the free hand.

   He fanned the single-action Colt, sending shots downrange almost too fast to count.

   Trick shooters fan their revolvers to fire rapidly, though accuracy suffers.

   Note

   A shooter's technique tied to the single-action revolver. GURPS Tactical Shooting (2011) gives the method: hold the trigger down and strike the hammer repeatedly with the free hand, whose sweeping motion is the fan. The object of the verb is the gun itself, so one fans a revolver. The speed it buys comes at the cost of accuracy. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • GURPS Tactical Shooting was first published in 2011. dokumen.pub
   • GURPS Tactical Shooting describes fanning a single-action revolver by holding down the trigger and repeatedly striking the hammer with the free hand. dokumen.pub
   • The free hand makes a sweeping motion across the hammer. centerofthewest.org
   • Fanning increases firing speed at the expense of accuracy. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    slap (bottom)verbtransitive

    To slap someone, especially on the backside, with an open hand.

    When she caught the boys raiding the cookie jar, their mother threatened to fan their pants.

    Grandpa warned that he would fan our behinds if we slammed the screen door one more time.

    Similarspank, smack, slap, swat

    Note

    The noun fanning carries this sense most vividly. In Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance (1934), the narrator imagines putting a woman across his knees and giving her "a swell fanning." Like spanking, it names a punishment of the backside, and its tone is homely and half-joking rather than truly violent. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Rex Stout wrote Fer-de-Lance, first published in 1934. en.wikipedia.org
    • The narrator imagines putting Sarah Barstow across his knees and giving her exactly “a swell fanning.” en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    separate chaffverbtransitive

    To winnow grain by tossing it so that the chaff is separated and blown away.

    Workers fan the threshed grain on breezy afternoons.

    The miller fanned the rye until only clean kernels remained.

    Similarwinnow, sift

    Note

    Winnowing sits at the root of the word. The machine built for the job was called a fanning mill, as in the Lower Canada law reports. Its noun partner is the winnowing instrument. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • A machine for winnowing grain was called a fanning mill. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Lower Canada reports contain a reference to fanning mills. en.wiktionary.org
    • The corresponding noun fan denotes a winnowing instrument. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    grain toolnouncountable

    An instrument for winnowing grain, moved so that the grain is tossed and agitated while the chaff separates and blows away.

    Grandmother bounced the threshed millet on a flat woven fan until the wind had carried off every bit of chaff.

    After the rice was pounded, she tossed it in a shallow winnowing fan, and the breeze carried the loose husks away.

    Note

    Here the word stays close to its Latin root. The King James Bible of 1611 pairs the tool with the shovel: provender "winnowed with the shouell and with the fanne." It also makes the fan a figure of judgment, "whose fanne is in his hand," gathering the wheat and burning the chaff. Read the old spelling fanne as the implement itself, not a breeze. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Fan derives from Latin vannus, meaning a tool for winnowing grain. en.wiktionary.org
    • The King James Bible was published in 1611. en.wikisource.org
    • Isaiah 30:24 pairs the shovel with the fan and contains the quoted wording. kingjamesbibleonline.org
    • Matthew 3:12 uses the fan in an image of judgment involving gathered wheat and burned chaff. kingjamesbibleonline.org
    • Fanne here denotes the winnowing implement. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    length unitnoundatedHong Kongcountable

    A dated unit of length equal to 0.1 tsun (0.01 chek), or about 0.00371 meters.

    1 chek (foot) = 14⅝ English inches divided into 10 tsün (inches) and each tsün into ten fan or tenths.

    1939, Colonial Reports - Annual Issues

    Note

    A third, unrelated fan, borrowed from Cantonese 分 and a doublet of fen and hoon. It sat at the bottom of a decimal ladder. Hong Kong's annual colonial reports of the 1930s set the chek at 14⅝ English inches, divided into ten tsün, and each tsün into ten fan. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The measurement word has a separate Cantonese origin and is a doublet of fen and hoon. en.wiktionary.org
    • Fan was the smallest unit in the stated decimal sequence: chek, tsün, fan. histsyn.com
14. 14
    noun

    In mathematics, a tree in which every node has only a finite number of branches.
15. 15
    noun

    A small vane or sail at the back of a windmill that automatically keeps the main sails turned to face the wind.
16. 16
    verb

    To apply a train's air brake repeatedly in rapid succession.