WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

fan out
    v 1: move outward; "The soldiers fanned out" [syn: diffuse,
         spread, spread out, fan out]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

54 Moby Thesaurus words for "fan out":
   aberrate, bestrew, branch, branch out, broadcast, circumfuse,
   deal out, deploy, diffract, diffuse, dispense, disperse, dispread,
   disseminate, distribute, divaricate, diverge, divide, expand,
   extend, fan, flare, go away, go off, issue, open, open up,
   outspread, outstretch, overgrow, overrun, overscatter, oversow,
   overspread, propagate, publish, radiate, ramify, retail, scatter,
   separate, sow, sow broadcast, splay, spraddle, sprangle, sprawl,
   spread, spread like wildfire, spread out, strew, unfold, utter,
   widen