fanned

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of fan.

   The strong breeze fanned the flames into a roaring blaze.

   He fanned the deck of cards across the green felt table.

   Note

   One spelling covers both the past tense and the participle, and the final n doubles before -ed. With have it builds the perfect (the wind had fanned the embers). With be it builds the passive (the flames were fanned). Only the transitive uses can go passive: blowing air on something, slapping, or waving something away. The intransitive spreading sense takes no object. The figurative 'invigorate' use is the root of the 'roused, intensified' adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having the spreading, wedge-like shape of an open fan, widening from a narrow base.

   The architect chose a fanned arrangement of windows along the curved wall.

   A row of fanned palm fronds framed the entrance to the resort.

   Similarsplayed, flared

   Note

   A shape word that, unlike many participle adjectives, grades freely: a tail can be more fanned than another, a surface very fanned. Jan Deblieu's Year of the Comets (2006) uses it of a tail, and the Springer Handbook of Wood Science (2023) of a rough, splayed cutting surface. After be it can blur with the passive verb, so it reads most clearly as an adjective before a noun or with more and very.

3. 3
   adjective

   Made more passionate, intense, or extreme, or given fresh energy.

   Years of fanned resentment finally erupted into a public confrontation.

   The speaker drew on the fanned enthusiasm of his supporters to carry the vote.

   Similarinflamed, stoked, heightened

   Oppositesubdued

   Note

   The fire metaphor stays close to the surface: a feeling is fanned the way embers are. Bertha von Suttner's memoirs make the image explicit with a passion for learning 'still more fanned into flame.' It usually names its cause with by, as in Plutarch's Morals, where anger is 'much more fanned by what angry persons do.' Like the shape adjective, it readily takes more.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3