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Fan   /fæn/   Listen
noun
Fan  n.  
1.
An instrument used for producing artificial currents of air, by the wafting or revolving motion of a broad surface; as:
(a)
An instrument for cooling the person, made of feathers, paper, silk, etc., and often mounted on sticks all turning about the same pivot, so as when opened to radiate from the center and assume the figure of a section of a circle.
(b)
(Mach.) Any revolving vane or vanes used for producing currents of air, in winnowing grain, blowing a fire, ventilation, etc., or for checking rapid motion by the resistance of the air; a fan blower; a fan wheel.
(c)
An instrument for winnowing grain, by moving which the grain is tossed and agitated, and the chaff is separated and blown away.
(d)
Something in the form of a fan when spread, as a peacock's tail, a window, etc.
(e)
A small vane or sail, used to keep the large sails of a smock windmill always in the direction of the wind. "Clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan."
2.
That which produces effects analogous to those of a fan, as in exciting a flame, etc.; that which inflames, heightens, or strengthens; as, it served as a fan to the flame of his passion.
3.
A quintain; from its form. (Obs.)
Fan blower, a wheel with vanes fixed on a rotating shaft inclosed in a case or chamber, to create a blast of air (fan blast) for forge purposes, or a current for draft and ventilation; a fanner.
Fan cricket (Zool.), a mole cricket.
Fan light (Arch.), a window over a door; so called from the semicircular form and radiating sash bars of those windows which are set in the circular heads of arched doorways.
Fan shell (Zool.), any shell of the family Pectinidae. See Scallop, n., 1.
Fan tracery (Arch.), the decorative tracery on the surface of fan vaulting.
Fan vaulting (Arch.), an elaborate system of vaulting, in which the ribs diverge somewhat like the rays of a fan, as in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey. It is peculiar to English Gothic.
Fan wheel, the wheel of a fan blower.
Fan window. Same as Fan light (above).
electric fan. a fan having revolving blades for propelling air, powered by an electric motor.


verb
Fan  v. t.  (past & past part. fanned; pres. part. fanning)  
1.
To move as with a fan. "The air... fanned with unnumbered plumes."
2.
To cool and refresh, by moving the air with a fan; to blow the air on the face of with a fan.
3.
To ventilate; to blow on; to affect by air put in motion. "Calm as the breath which fans our eastern groves."
4.
To winnow; to separate chaff from, and drive it away by a current of air; as, to fan wheat.
5.
To excite or stir up to activity, as a fan excites a flame; to stimulate; as, this conduct fanned the excitement of the populace.
Fanning machine, or Fanning mill, a machine for separating seed from chaff, etc., by a blast of air; a fanner.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Fan" Quotes from Famous Books



... marriage had been an unhappy one—an opinion gathered partly from Mrs. Gaskell, partly from current tradition in Yorkshire. Mrs. Gaskell, in fact, did not like Mr. Nicholls, and there were those with whom she came in contact while writing Miss Bronte's Life who were eager to fan that feeling in the usually kindly biographer. Mr. Nicholls himself did not work in the direction of conciliation. He was, as we shall see, a Scotchman, and Scottish taciturnity brought to bear upon the genial and jovial Yorkshire folk did not make for ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter
... and how "upsot" they all were. Her master died of "the consumption" during the war. She recalls how hard it was after his death. The Syberts had no children and there was no one to turn to after his death. Arrie tells of her Master's illness, how she was the housemaid and was called upon to fan him and how she would get so tired and sleepy she would nod a little, the fan dropping from hands into his face. He would take it up and "crack my haid with the handle to wake me up. I wuz allus so sorry when I done that, but I jest ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration
... of several small leaves, in which last case they seem to form complete little branches. The date-palm furnishes a striking example of such a successive transformation of the simplest leaf form. A midrib is elongated through a succession of several leaves, the single fan-shaped leaf becomes torn and diverted, and a very complicated leaf is developed, which rivals ...
— A History of Science, Volume 4(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams
... another, has furnished the town with discourse for near a month. The choice of the play was THE SPANISH FRIAR, the only play forbid by the late K[ing], Some unhappy expressions, among which those that follow, put her in some disorder, and forced her to hold up her fan, and often look behind her, and call for her palatine and hood, and any thing she could next think of; while those who were in the pit before her, turned their heads over their shoulders, and all in general directed their looks towards her, whenever their ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden
... down her needle, and explained a plan which had come into her head as they talked. Instead of wandering on down the Amazons until she reached some sulphurous tropical port, where one had to lie within doors all day beating off insects with a fan, the sensible thing to do surely was to spend the season with them in their villa by the seaside, where among other advantages Mrs. Ambrose herself would be at hand to—"After all, Rachel," she broke off, "it's silly to pretend that because there's twenty years' difference between ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf


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