fans

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of fan.

   Two ceiling fans spun lazily above the crowded café.

   Loyal fans waited outside the stadium for hours before the match.

   Note

   A regular -s plural covering every kind of air-mover the singular names: hand fans, ceiling fans, the winnowing fans once used to blow chaff from grain, and the small vanes that keep a smock mill's sails turned to the wind. The same spelling is also the verb's present form, so the sentence decides: in "she fans herself" it is an action, while in "she owns three fans" it names objects.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of fan.

   A gentle wind fans the embers back to life.

   The speaker fans the crowd's excitement with one bold promise after another.

   Note

   Here the -s form carries a verb that works both with and without an object. Used transitively, it takes whatever is cooled, dispelled or stirred up: she fans her face, he fans the smoke away, a rumor fans their anger. Used intransitively, it describes spreading outward from one point, usually with out. A search party fans out, and so does a river delta.

   The search party fans out across the hillside at dawn.

   Below the gorge, the river fans out into a dozen shallow channels.

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