fan out

phrasal verb

fanned out; fanning out; fans out

: to spread apart or to cause (something) to spread apart

The police fanned out across the park in search of the suspect.

He fanned out his fingers.

Examples of fan out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So Sunday’s game was the NFL equivalent of playing Middle Tennessee State (no offense intended to all the Blue Raiders fans out there). —Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 7 Dec. 2025

For the first time in a decade, hunters armed with rifles and crossbows are fanning out across Florida's swamps and flatwoods to legally hunt the Florida black bear, over the vocal opposition of critics. —CBS News, 6 Dec. 2025

Each migration season, volunteers fan out across California’s coast from October to January to tally butterflies. —Olivia Maule, Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2025

The crater is surrounded by twin lobes of material that fan out to the north and south, evoking the delicate symmetry of a butterfly's wings. —Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 5 Dec. 2025

Rhymes for fan out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout