finger fan

Noun

finger fan (plural finger fans)

1. A position in which the fingers of one hand are spread out to form a fan-like shape.
   • Mr. Jorrocks was equally early, having been greatly tormented by the old cutomer, who had appeared to him in his dreams in a variety of ways -- now running between his legs and upsetting him, now nearly blinding him with a whisk over his eyes from his sandy brush, again, as the chairman of a...1854, Robert Smith Surtees, Handley Cross: Or, Mr. Jorrocks's Hunt, page 405
   • After years of practice she can manage a finger fan just past an octave and even for that there is pain.1992, Michael Doane, City of light: a novel, →ISBN, page 41
2. Synonym of finger mask.
   • "We're singing for Dina today," Wilson said, "and you're dancing," and before he struck the second note and the singers got started on their first song, people were out in the middle of the gym floor, shoes off, feet moving and finger fans counting the beat2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, →ISBN, page 172
   • In my moving hands I will hold finger fans of caribou hair.2003, Jacques L. Condor, Raven's Children, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   finger mask

3. A blow delivered to the face with fingers spread.
   • During gaps of combinations, insert: 1. non-commitements to distract the opponent, or to improve positioning or the flow. 2. delicacy to score without destroying the overall balance and flow of the combination (finger jabs, finger fan, finger flicks, backhand, palm thrust).1977 February, “Bruce Lee's Attack Strategies for Fighting (Part II)”, in Black Belt, volume 15, number 2, page 60
   • In truth, people who require fine use of their hands in their work (artists, surgeons, typists) may favor using palm strikes and finger fans over the more demanding fist or single-finger strikes.2004, The Shaolin Grandmasters' Text