Word.ws English Dictionary

fanned the flames

fanned the flames is the simple past and past participle of fan the flames.

Meaning of fan the flames

Verb

fan the flames (third-person singular simple present fans the flames, present participle fanning the flames, simple past and past participle fanned the flames)

  1. (idiomatic) To intensify or worsen an already difficult situation.
    • In simple terms, both superpowers poured gasoline on the fire and fanned the flames, hoping that out of the ashes would arise a region committed either to democracy or to Soviet-style communism.2002, Scott Hunt, The Future of Peace: On the Front Lines with the World's Great Peacemakers, HarperCollins, published 2004, →ISBN, page 207

Questions about fanned the flames

What is fanned the flames the simple past and past participle of?
Fanned the flames is the simple past and past participle of fan the flames.

Words near fanned the flames in the dictionary

  1. fanne
  2. fanned
  3. fanned out
  4. fanned the fire
  5. fanned the flame
  6. fanned the flames
  7. fannel
  8. fannell
  9. fannells
  10. fannels
  11. fanner

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanned the flames (page history and authors); fan the flames (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “fanned the flames.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fanned_the_flames. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.