Definition of "fan out" [fan out]

• To spread out into the shape of a fan (verb)

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• "With a titanicwhoosh, the foul stinking body of mud oozed over the lowering dam and began to fan out slowly into the round chamber."
• "They reached a stairway, and raced up it, Long Arm and Pig ahead to fan out on each level and cover their flanks, and the third of the three choppers (Hugh heard him called Squatty) covering the rear."
• "Glaciers sometimes flow off a landmass and fan out over water."