Word.ws English Dictionary

fanning the flames

fanning the flames is the present participle and gerund 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 fanning the flames

What is fanning the flames the present participle and gerund of?
Fanning the flames is the present participle and gerund of fan the flames.

Words near fanning the flames in the dictionary

  1. fanning mill
  2. fanning mills
  3. fanning out
  4. fanning the fire
  5. fanning the flame
  6. fanning the flames
  7. fannings
  8. Fannins
  9. fannish
  10. fannishly
  11. fannishness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanning 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.

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