fan vs hand fan

fan

noun
  • An electrical or mechanical device for moving air, used for cooling people, machinery, etc. 

  • A small vane or sail, used to keep the large sails of a smock mill always in the direction of the wind. 

  • Anything resembling a hand-held fan in shape, e.g., a peacock’s tail. 

  • A person who is fond of something or someone, especially an admirer of a performer or aficionado of a sport. 

  • An instrument for winnowing grain, by moving which the grain is tossed and agitated, and the chaff is separated and blown away. 

  • The action of fanning; agitation of the air. 

  • A hand-held device consisting of concertinaed material, or slats of material, gathered together at one end, that may be opened out into the shape of a sector of a circle and waved back and forth in order to move air towards oneself and cool oneself. 

  • A section of a tree having a finite number of branches 

verb
  • To dispel by waving a hand-held fan. 

  • To strike out. 

  • To move or spread in multiple directions from one point, in the shape of a hand-held fan. 

  • To perform a maneuver that involves flicking the top rear of an old-style gun. 

  • To slap (a behind, especially). 

  • To invigorate, like flames when fanned. 

  • To blow air on (something) by means of a fan (hand-held, mechanical or electrical) or otherwise. 

  • To apply (the air brake) many times in rapid succession. 

  • To strike out (a batter). 

  • To winnow grain. 

hand fan

noun
  • A hand-held device designed to be waved back and forth in order to induce airflow for the purpose of cooling the user. 

How often have the words fan and hand fan occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )