Forms: 1 fannian, 4–5 south. dial. vannien, vanne, 6 fane, 6–7 fann(e, (7 phan), 5– fan. [f. FAN sb.1 Cf. F. vanner.]
1. trans. To winnow (corn, etc.). † Also fig.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill, lx. (1889), 186. Na fauna [L. uéntlies] þu þe on ælcum winde.
1340. Ayenb., 139. Oure lhord ssel uanni his corn ate daye of dome.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 149. Fanne corne, or oþer lyke, vanno.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccclxxxi. 640. Their tenantes ought … to bring home theyr cornes, and some to threshe and to fanne.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, i. § 15. 21. Men when they fan their corne cannot do it so thorowly cleane, but that some chaffe or tares wil remaine with the wheat, and some wheat be cast out with the chaffe.
1853. Soyer, Pantropheon, 42. They take white oats and put them in the oven; when sufficiently dried, they are fanned, cleaned, and carried to a mill.
1884. C. H. Farnham, A Winter in Canada, in Harpers Mag., LXVIII. Feb., 400/2. After smoking the after-dinner pipe we saw wood or thresh or fan grain till the chores come again at half past four.
absol. 15[?]. How Plowman lerned Paternoster, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 218.
| He coude eke sowe and holde a plowe, | |
| Bothe dyke, hedge, and mylke a cowe, | |
| Thresshe, fane, and gelde a swyne, | |
| In every season and in tyme. |
fig. 1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. vi. 177.
| The loue I beare him, | |
| Made me to fan you thus. |
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 15. Let vs then search ourselues, and fanne ourselues; let us set ourselues often in Gods presence.
1671. Flavel, Fount. Life, xiii. 38. Satan will fan thee not to get out thy Chaff.
b. To winnow away (chaff); to drive away or scatter like chaff. Chiefly with away, out. lit. and fig.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 7. Þan fan owt þe holys.
1639. Ainsworth, Annot. Ps. cvi. 27. To sell their seed among the heathens, and to fan them in the land.
1641. Sanderson, Serm., II. 11. They may fan away the chaff from the wheat: and letting go the refuse, hold fast that which is good.
1644. H. Parker, Jus Pop., 67. The phanning out of our way such advantages, as the Primate, and his fellow Royalists may seem there to lay hold of.
1653. Milton, Ps. i. 11.
| Not so the wicked, as chaff, which, fanned, | |
| The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand | |
| In judgement. |
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 818.
| To fan | |
| And winnow from the coming step of time | |
| All chaff of custom. |
c. To sweep away as by the wind from a fan.
1820. Scott, Abbot, ii. To fan the flies from my ladie’s face while she sleeps.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, I. 29, liii.
| Sughing its vengeance through the yellow trees, | |
| Pattering the acorns from their cups adown, | |
| Fanning the sere leaf far upon the leas. |
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxx. 397. You could have fanned her out of the way with a butterfly’s wing.
2. intr. † To make a fan-like movement; to flap. † Of a bird: To flutter. Of the wind: To blow. Now rare.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 457. [Þe rauen] fongez to þe flyȝt, & fannez on þe wyndez.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 25. Þe commes, and lightes apon þ awter, and fannez with his wenges ay till þe forsaid thinges be sett on fire.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 202 b. With her wynges she fanneth … vnto she haue kyndled in them fyre.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. i. 212. You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a Peacocks feather.
1671. R. Bohun, Disc. Wind, 99. They [winds] begin insensibly to fanne, and agitate the Air.
When first he salutes our Horizon, they [winds] begin insensibly to fanne, and agitate the Air, blowing fresher by degrees, as the Celestiall heat prevayles.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. III. 27. These Sea-Breezes do commonly rise in the Morning … in half an Hour’s time … it fans pretty briskly.
1889. ‘Mark Twain,’ Yankee at Crt. K. Arthur, I. 67. To feel the cold uncanny night breezes fan through the place.
b. To be wafted gently along; to move as by a gentle beating of the wings. rare.
1622. Wither, The Mistress of Philarete (1633), 629.
| Or fine pillowes of such Downe | |
| As in time of Molting, fanns | |
| From the breasts of siluer Swannes. |
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., ix. (1856), 66. With hardly any perceptible motion, we managed to fan along at a rate of two knots an hour, our sails flapping all the time lazily against the masts.
1874. Johns, Brit. Birds, 52. The Barn Owl … fans its way onwards with its down-fringed wings.
3. trans. To move or drive (the air) with a fan. Const. dat., also in, upon.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxxxvii. 408 (Add. MS.). [The ape] toke vp the clothes, and fanned hem wynde.
1594. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, IV. iv.
| The Thousand Cupids hover in the air, | |
| And fan it in Æneas’ lovely face! |
1633. Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester, Manchester al Mondo (1636), 26. A being as every day pants for breath, which Nature fannes upon it for a while.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, IV. xv.
| O’er his throne the birds of Heaven, | |
| Their waving wings his sun-shield, fann’d around him | |
| The motionless air of noon. |
b. To move like a fan; to wave. arch.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 40.
| The willows, and the hazel copses green, | |
| Shall now no more be seen | |
| Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. |
1740. Dyer, The Ruins of Rome, 374.
| The gourd and olive fan | |
| Their am’rous foliage. |
4. To drive a current of air upon, with or as with a fan: a. with the object or effect of cooling. Also To fan into (slumber).
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. ii. 49.
| Where the Norweyan Banners flowt the Skie, | |
| And fanne our people cold. |
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., viii. 23. He made one of his followers to fan me with a ventilow for to refresh me.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 80, 1 June, ¶ 3. Fanned into Slumbers by successive Bands of them [Slaves].
1725. Berkeley, Proposal, Wks. III. 221. The air in Bermuda is perpetually fanned and kept cool by sea-breezes.
1821. Keats, Isabella, xxvii.
| Where Arno’s stream | |
| Gurgles through straighten’d banks, and still doth fan | |
| Itself with dancing bulrush. |
1832. Tennyson, Eleänore, 9.
| Thy bounteous forehead was not fann’d | |
| With breezes from our oaken glades. |
1863. Mrs. Oliphant, The Doctor’s Family. Mrs. Fred, upon her sofa, took up her handkerchief and once more began to fan her pink cheeks.
b. with the object or result of kindling a flame; chiefly fig. Const. into, to.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. iii. 127.
| Let every feeble Rumor shake your hearts: | |
| Your Enemies, with nodding of their Plumes | |
| Fan you into dispaire. |
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. Ad. Sec. xi. 27 (Prayer). Let a coale from thy altar, fann’d with the wings of the holy Dove, kindle in my soule such holy flames.
1709. W. King, Ovid’s Art of Love, XIV. 67.
| By slow Degrees he fans the gentle Fire, | |
| Till Perseverence makes the Flame aspire. |
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 60.
| Its unwearied wings could fan | |
| The quenchless ashes of Milan. |
1828–40. Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 146. While apparently anxious for a truce, he [Edward II.] employed his ambassadors at the Papal court to irritate the Holy Father against Bruce, and to fan the dissensions between them.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 102. With difficulty his almost imperceptible spark of life had been screened and fanned into a dim and flickering flame.
1887. C. C. Abbott, Waste-Land Wand., iv. 96–7. The little fire that I had placed at the foot of the tree was fanned by a passing breeze to a lively flame, and my efforts to dislodge it proved unavailing.
5. Of a breeze, etc.: To blow gently and refreshingly upon, as if driven by a fan; to cool; rarely of a person: To breathe upon.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 142.
| That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow, | |
| Fann’d with the Easterne winde, turns to a crow, | |
| When thou hold’st up thy hand. |
1605. Tryall Chev., V. i., in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 339.
| As soone | |
| As the coole winds have fand the burning Sunne | |
| And made it tractable for travaylers, | |
| Arme you and mount upon your barbed Steed, | |
| Lead foorth your Souldiers and in good array | |
| Charge bravely on the Army of our foe. |
1635. A. Stafford, The Femall Glory (1869), 15. Only Zephirus was let loose to fanne the Pinke, and Violet, and play the wanton with the Rule.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. i. 316. The heat of the parts is fanned, cooled and tempered.
1704. Pope, Windsor Forest, 194.
| And now his shorter Breath with sultry Air | |
| Pants on her Neck, and fans her parting Hair. |
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., vi. xii.
| It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek | |
| Like a meadow-gale of spring. |
1812. J. Wilson, The Isle of Palms, I. 11.
| The sea, I ween, cannot be fann’d | |
| By evening freshness from the land. |
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), IV. xxxiv. 149. Terraces, fanned by cool breezes from the sea.
6. To spread out like a fan. a. trans. Naut. To widen. Also, To fan out (see quot. 1871). b. intr. for refl. To fan out: to expand in rays. rare. Also fig. (U.S.) To make a display.
a. 1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk. Fanning, the technical phrase for breadthening the after part of the tops. Also, widening in general.
1871. Amer. Encycl. Printing, 167/2. Fanning Out … spreading out the upper part of the paper somewhat in the resemblance of a fan.
b. 1592. R. D., Hypnerotomachia, 11. I beheld a prodigious winged vaughting horse, of moulten brasse, of an exceeding bignesse, his wings fanning out.
1860. Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, To Fan out. To make a show at an examination, alluding probably to the peacock spreading his tail.
1861. Thornbury, Turner, I. 314. What Orient splendour of colour, fanning out far beyond towards Ithaca and home.
7. slang. a. trans. To beat; to rate soundly. b. To feel, handle.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. I fanned him sweetly, I beat him heartily.
1862. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (ed. 2), IV. 319. Joe … had ‘fanned’ the gentleman’s pocket, i.e., had felt the pocket and knew there was a handkerchief.
1887. Tristram, in Eng. Illust. Mag., Dec., 228. Fanning them, which in the tongue of coachmen, is whipping them.
