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

From the Delta, blues artists fanned out across the nation. —USA Today, 10 Nov. 2025

The philosophy has made fans out of women who famously live in the spotlight yet prefer a lighter touch—Meghan Markle among them. —Brittany Talarico, PEOPLE, 9 Nov. 2025

When a ripple bug dips them into the water, surface tension causes stiff fronds at the ends to fan out in just 10 milliseconds, and the fans become oars. —Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2025

Specifically, Tigray braids—AKA Albaso braids, Tigray lines, or Ethiopian lines—are characterized by fine cornrows fanning out towards the back and sides into a voluminous, downward flowing coif at the back. —Essence, 7 Nov. 2025

Rhymes for fan out

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