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fanned

Things that are fanned have the spread-out, winglike shape of an open fan. A peacock's fanned tail feathers are pretty spectacular to see.

You might browse through fanned scarves on a table at a craft fair, or choose one from the fanned playing cards that a magician offers you. In either case, the things that are fanned are spread out and shaped like a fan. The adjective fanned comes from the verb fan, which gained the meaning "spread like a hand-held fan" in the late 16th century, when hand-held fans were quite common.

Definitions of fanned
  1. adjective
    especially spread in a fan shape
    “the peacock's fanned tail”
    synonyms: spread-out
    distributed
    spread out or scattered about or divided up
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘fanned'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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