(fans, fanning, fanned)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
If you are a fan of someone or something, especially a famous person or a sport, you like them very much and are very interested in them.
As a boy he was a Manchester United fan...
I am a great fan of rave music.
N-COUNT: usu n N, N of n
2.
A fan is a flat object that you hold in your hand and wave in order to move the air and make yourself feel cooler.
N-COUNT
3.
If you fan yourself or your face when you are hot, you wave a fan or other flat object in order to make yourself feel cooler.
She would have to wait in the truck, fanning herself with a piece of cardboard...
Mo kept bringing me out refreshments and fanning me as it was that hot.
VERB: V pron-refl, V n
4.
A fan is a piece of electrical or mechanical equipment with blades that go round and round. It keeps a room or machine cool or gets rid of unpleasant smells.
He cools himself in front of an electric fan.
...an extractor fan.
N-COUNT: oft supp N
5.
If you fan a fire, you wave something flat next to it in order to make it burn more strongly. If a wind fans a fire, it blows on it and makes it burn more strongly.
During the afternoon, hot winds fan the flames.
VERB: V n
6.
If someone fans an emotion such as fear, hatred, or passion, they deliberately do things to make people feel the emotion more strongly.
He said students were fanning social unrest with their violent protests.
= fuel
VERB: V n
7.
to
fan the flames: see
flame
the shit hit the fan: see
shit