Clean provender, which hath been winnowed with
the shovel and with the fan. --Is. xxx. 24.
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.] --Chaucer.
{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} (Zo["o]l.), 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} (Zo["o]l.), any shell of the family
{Pectinid[ae]}. 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).
The air . . . fanned with unnumbered plumes.
--Milton.
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.
--Dryden.
4. To winnow; to separate chaff from, and drive it away by a
current of air; as, to fan wheat. --Jer. li. 2.
5. To excite or stir up to activity, as a fan axcites 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.