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Entry 8 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Fan

/(făn)/ · IPA /fæn/
01 n. An instrument used for producing artificial currents of air, by the wafting or revolving motion of a broad surface
  1. 1.
    An instrument used for producing artificial currents of air, by the wafting or revolving motion of a broad surface(Mach.)
    “Clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.” — Is. xxx. 24.
  2. 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. 3.
    A quintain; -- from its form.[Obs.]
Phrases & compounds
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 — a mole cricket.
Fan light — 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 — any shell of the family Pectinidæ. See Scallop, n., 1.
Fan tracery — the decorative tracery on the surface of fan vaulting.
Fan vaulting — 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.
02 v. t. To move as with a fan.
imp. & p. p. Fanned; p. pr. & vb. n. Fanning
  1. 1.
    To move as with a fan.
    “The air . . . fanned with unnumbered plumes.” — Milton.
  2. 2.
    To cool and refresh, by moving the air with a fan; to blow the air on the face of with a fan.
  3. 3.
    To ventilate; to blow on; to affect by air put in motion.
    “Calm as the breath which fans our eastern groves.” — Dryden.
  4. 4.
    To winnow; to separate chaff from, and drive it away by a current of air; as, to fan wheat.
  5. 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.
Phrases & compounds
Fanning machine — a machine for separating seed from chaff, etc., by a blast of air; a fanner.