fan the flames

present singular third person fans the flames · participle present fanning the flames · participle past fanned the flames · past fanned the flames

1. idiomaticTo intensify or worsen an already difficult situation.

   What I don't see happening is the government fanning the flames of competition.

   2012, Steve Faktor, Econovation: The Red, White, and Blue Pill for Arousing Innovation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., published 2012, →ISBN

   4 more examples

   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

   Far from putting a distance between them, his absence was only fanning the flames of her affection.

   2007, Barbara Cartland, A Dream Come True, M-Y Books Distribution, published 2007, →ISBN

   They worried, too, that such a war would only fan the flames of the Islamic world's animosity toward the United States, producing "a further cycle of terrorist attacks, American casualties and escalation" […]

   2010, Calvin F. Exoo, The Pen and the Sword: Press, War, and Terror in the 21st Century, SAGE Publications, Inc., published 2010, →ISBN, page 40

   Atlanta newspapers fanned the flames of racial hatred by carrying stories of lynchings and calling for a renewed Ku Klux Klan to “control” blacks.

   2012, Sarah Boslaugh, “Atlanta, Georgia”, in Wilbur R. Miller, editor, The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia, Sage Publications, Inc., →ISBN, page 74

   Synonyms: add fuel to the fire, pour gasoline on the fire, fan the fire