sea-fan

Noun

sea fan (plural sea fans)

1. Any gorgonian (in order Alcyonacea) which branches in a fan-like form, especially of species Gorgonia ventalina (common sea fan, purple sea fan) and Gorgonia flabellum (Venus fan, Venus sea fan, West Indian sea fan, purple gorgonian seafan) of Florida and the West Indies.
   • Wide sea fans swayed and beckoned in the eddies, and in the grey valleys they caught the light of the moon and waved spectrally, like fragments of the shrouds of men buried at sea.1954, Ian Fleming, “Beau Desert”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 203