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fan

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fan

1[fan] noun, verb, fanned, fan⋅ning.
–noun
1. any device for producing a current of air by the movement of a broad surface or a number of such surfaces.
2. an implement of feathers, leaves, paper, cloth, etc., often in the shape of a long triangle or of a semicircle, for waving lightly in the hand to create a cooling current of air about a person: We sat on the veranda, cooling ourselves with palm-leaf fans.
3. anything resembling such an implement, as the tail of a bird.
4. any of various devices consisting essentially of a series of radiating vanes or blades attached to and revolving with a central hublike portion to produce a current of air: ceiling fan; wall fan.
5. a series of revolving blades supplying air for winnowing or cleaning grain.
6. Horology. fly 1 (def. 28).
7. a semicircular decoration of bunting.
8. Physical Geography. an alluvial fan.
–verb (used with object)
9. to move or agitate (the air) with or as if with a fan.
10. to cause air to blow upon, as from a fan; cool or refresh with or as if with a fan: He fanned his face with a newspaper.
11. to stir to activity with or as if with a fan: to fan a flame; to fan emotions.
12. (of a breeze, current of air, etc.) to blow upon, as if driven by a fan: A cool breeze fanned the shore.
13. to spread out like a fan: The dealer fanned the cards.
14. Informal. to move (oneself) quickly: You'll fan your tail out of here if you know what's good for you.
15. Agriculture. to winnow, esp. by an artificial current of air.
16. Baseball. (of a pitcher) to strike out (a batter).
17. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. to punish by spanking; spank: Your mother will fan you good if you break that dish.
–verb (used without object)
18. to strike, swing, or brush lightly at something.
19. Western U.S. (chiefly cowboy use). to slap the flanks of (a horse or other animal) repeatedly with a hat to get it to move or move faster.
20. to spread out like a fan (often fol. by out): The forest fire fanned out in all directions.
21. Baseball. (of a batter) to strike out, usually by swinging at and missing the pitch charged as the third strike.
22. hit the fan, Slang. to become suddenly more awkward, embarrassing, or troublesome: When news of the incident was leaked to the press, everything hit the fan at once.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME, OE fann < L vannus winnowing basket


fanlike, adjective
fanner, noun

fan

2[fan]
–noun
an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc.: a baseball fan; a great fan of Charlie Chaplin.

Origin:
1885–90, Americanism; short for fanatic


supporter, enthusiast, partisan, booster, addict.

Fan

[fan, fahn]
–noun, plural Fans, (especially collectively) Fan.
Fang.

Fang

[fang, fahng, fahn]
–noun, plural Fangs, (especially collectively) Fang for 1.
1. Also called Pahouin, Pangwe. a member of an indigenous people of Gabon, Cameroon, and adjacent areas.
2. the Bantu language spoken by this people.
Also, Fan.

fly

1[flahy] verb, flew or, for 11, 19, flied, flown, fly⋅ing, noun, plural flies.
–verb (used without object)
1. to move through the air using wings.
2. to be carried through the air by the wind or any other force or agency: bits of paper flying about.
3. to float or flutter in the air: flags flying in the breeze.
4. to travel in an aircraft or spacecraft.
5. to move suddenly and quickly; start unexpectedly: He flew from the room.
6. to change rapidly and unexpectedly from one state or position to another: The door flew open.
7. to flee; escape.
8. to travel in space: The probe will fly past the planet.
9. to move or pass swiftly: How time flies!
10. to move with an aggressive surge: A mother fox will fly at anyone approaching her kits.
11. Baseball.
a. to bat a fly ball: He flied into right field.
b. to fly out.
12. Informal. to be acceptable, believable, or feasible: It seemed like a good idea, but it just wouldn't fly.
–verb (used with object)
13. to make (something) float or move through the air: to fly a kite.
14. to operate (an aircraft, spacecraft, or the like).
15. to hoist aloft, as for display, signaling, etc.: to fly a flag.
16. to operate an aircraft or spacecraft over: to fly the Pacific.
17. to transport or convey by air: We fly merchandise to Boston.
18. to escape from; flee: to fly someone's wrath.
19. Theater.
a. to hang (scenery) above a stage by means of rigging supported by the gridiron.
b. to raise (scenery) from the stage or acting area into the flies.
–noun
20. a strip of material sewn along one edge of a garment opening for concealing buttons, zippers, or other fasteners.
21. a flap forming the door of a tent.
22. Also called tent fly. a piece of canvas extending over the ridgepole of a tent and forming an outer roof.
23. an act of flying; a flight.
24. the course of a flying object, as a ball.
25. Baseball. fly ball.
26. British. a light, covered, public carriage drawn by one horse; hansom; hackney coach.
27. Machinery. a horizontal arm, weighted at each end, that pivots about the screw of a press so that when the screw is lowered the momentum of the fly will increase the force of the press.
28. Also called fan. Horology. a regulating device for chime and striking mechanisms, consisting of an arrangement of vanes on a revolving axis.
29. Printing.
a. (in some presses) the apparatus for removing the printed sheets to the delivery table.
b. Also called flyboy. (formerly) a printer's devil employed to remove printed sheets from a press.
30. (on a flag)
a. the horizontal dimension of a flag as flown from a vertical staff.
b. the end of the flag farther from the staff. Compare hoist (def. 7).
31. flies. Also called fly loft. Theater. the space above the stage used chiefly for storing scenery and equipment.
32. Nautical. a propellerlike device streamed to rotate and transfer information on speed to a mechanical log.
33. fly out, Baseball, Softball. to be put out by hitting a fly ball that is caught by a player of the opposing team.
34. fly blind. blind (def. 33).
35. fly in the face of, to act in defiance of (authority, custom, etc.). Also, fly in the teeth of.
36. fly off the handle. handle (def. 16).
37. go fly a kite, Slang.
a. to put up with or get used to matters as they stand.
b. to confine oneself to one's own affairs.
c. to cease being a nuisance: If she gets mad enough she'll tell me to go fly a kite.
38. let fly,
a. to hurl or propel (a weapon, missile, etc.).
b. to give free rein to an emotion: She let fly with a barrage of angry words.
39. on the fly,
a. during flight; before falling to the ground: to catch a baseball on the fly.
b. hurriedly; without pausing: We had dinner on the fly.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME flīen, OE flēogan; c. OHG fliogan, G fliegen, ON fljuga


fly⋅a⋅ble, adjective
fly⋅a⋅bil⋅i⋅ty, noun


1. Fly, flit, flutter, hover, soar refer to moving through the air as on wings. Fly is the general term: Birds fly. Airplanes fly. To flit is to make short rapid flights from place to place: A bird flits from tree to tree. To flutter is to agitate the wings tremulously, either without flying or in flying only short distances: A young bird flutters out of a nest and in again. To hover is to linger in the air, or to move over or about something within a narrow area or space: hovering clouds; a hummingbird hovering over a blossom. To soar is to (start to) fly upward to a great height usually with little advance in any other direction, or else to (continue to) fly at a lofty height without visible movement of the wings: Above our heads an eagle was soaring.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To fan
fan 1   (fān)   
n.  
  1. A device for creating a current of air or a breeze, especially:

    1. A machine using an electric motor to rotate thin, rigid vanes in order to move air, as for cooling.

    2. A collapsible, usually wedge-shaped device made of a light material such as silk, paper, or plastic.

  2. A machine for winnowing.

  3. Something resembling an open fan in shape: a peacock's fan.

v.   fanned, fan·ning, fans

v.   tr.
  1. To move or cause a current of (air) with or as if with a fan.

  2. To direct a current of air or a breeze upon, especially in order to cool: fan one's face.

  3. To stir (something) up by or as if by fanning: fanned the flames in the fireplace; a troublemaker who fanned resentment among the staff.

  4. To open (something) out into the shape of a fan: The bird fanned its colorful tail.

    1. To fire (an automatic gun) in a continuous sweep by keeping one's finger on the trigger.

    2. To fire (a nonautomatic gun) rapidly by chopping the hammer with the palm.

  5. To winnow.

  6. Baseball To strike out (a batter).

v.   intr.
  1. To spread out like a fan: The troops fanned out from the beachhead.

  2. Baseball To strike out.


[Middle English, winnowing fan, from Old English fann, from Latin vannus; see wet-1 in Indo-European roots.]
fan 2   (fān)   
n.  An ardent devotee; an enthusiast.

[Short for fanatic.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
fan

  1. tv.
    to ignore someone or something; to cut a class; to blow (so/sth) off. (Fan off = blow as in blow (so) off. Fan, from fanatic meaning “devotee” or “admirer” is very old and is Standard English.) : You have to meet with your teacher? Oh, fan that. It doesn't matter.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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fly

  1. mod.
    knowledgeable; alert and in the know. : This dude is fly; there's no question about it.
  2. mod.
    nice-looking; stylish. : I like your fly shoes, Sam.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

fan  (1)
O.E. (W. Saxon) fann "a basket or shovel for winnowing grain" (by tossing it in the air), from L. vannus, related to ventus "wind" (see wind (n.)). The chaff, being lighter, would blow off. Sense of "device for moving air" first recorded 1390; the hand-held version is first attested 1555. To fan out "spread out like a hand-held fan," is from 1592. A fan-light (1819) originally was shaped like a lady's fan.

fan  (2)
1889, Amer.Eng., originally of baseball enthusiasts, probably a shortening of fanatic, but may be influenced by the Fancy (1807), a collective term for followers of a certain hobby or sport (especially boxing). There is an isolated use from 1682, but the modern word is likely a new formation.

fang 
O.E. fang "prey, spoils, a seizing or taking," from gefangen, pp. of fon "seize, take, capture," from P.Gmc. *fango- (cf. O.N. fanga, Ger. fangen), from PIE base *pank-/*pak- "to make firm, fix;" connected to L. pax (gen. pacis) "peace." The sense of "canine tooth" (1555) probably developed from O.E. fengtoð, lit. "catching- or grasping-tooth."

fly  (n.)
O.E. fleoge, from P.Gmc. *fleugjon (cf. O.S. fleiga, O.N. fluga, M.Du. vlieghe, Ger. Fliege "fly); lit. "the flying (insect)" (cf. O.E. fleogende "flying"), from same source as fly (v.1). Originally "any winged insect" (hence butterfly, etc.); long used by farmers and gardeners for any insect parasite. Slang adj. meaning "clever, alert, wide awake" first recorded 18c., perhaps from the notion of the insect being hard to catch (other theories, however, trace it to fledge or flash); 1990s use may be a revival or a reinvention. Fly on the wall "unseen observer" first recorded 1949. An O.E. word for "curtain" was fleonet "fly-net." Fly-swatter first attested 1917. Flypaper attested from 1851, though the item itself is said to have become commonly available in London in 1848.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: fang
Pronunciation: 'fa[ng]
Function: noun
1 a : a long sharp tooth: as (1) : one by which an animal's prey is seized and heldor torn (2) : one of the long hollow or grooved and often erectile teeth of a venomous snake b : one of a spider's chelicerae at the tip of which a poison gland opens
2 : the root of a tooth or one of the processes or prongs into which a root divides —fanged /'fa[ng]d/ adjective

Main Entry: fly
Pronunciation: 'flI
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural flies
1 : a winged insect —now used chiefly incombination flies> fly>
2 a : any dipteran fly called also true fly, two-winged fly b : a largeand stout-bodied dipteran fly (as a horsefly)
Medical Dictionary

fly (flī)
n.
Any of numerous two-winged insects of the order Diptera.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Bible Dictionary

Fan

a winnowing shovel by which grain was thrown up against the wind that it might be cleansed from broken straw and chaff (Isa. 30:24; Jer. 15:7; Matt. 3:12). (See AGRICULTURE.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Idioms & Phrases

fan

In addition to the idiom beginning with fan, also see shit will hit the fan.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Abbreviations & Acronyms
FAN
  1. Fetal Alcohol Network

  2. Food Allergy Network

The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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