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The person in the picture above "is holding the knife pointy-end down" and I think "pointy-end down" is an adverb.

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The person in the picture above "is holding the knife pointy-end up" and "pointy-end up" is an adverb.

Now I have a toy fan that looks like this

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I am not sure if the plastic tube above is called the blade of the toy fan?

The fan has a motor that spins the blade.

When the baby cries, I turn on the fan to let him stop crying. But I want to hold the fan in such a way that the blade facing away from the baby

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Can I say "**hold the toy fan blade-away, not blade-face-in **" the same way we say "hold the knife pointy-end down, not pointy-end up" with "blade-away" and "blade-face-in" as adverbs?

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    The blades of a fan are the vanes that turn, not the "shaft, body, motor, axle". Note that "pointy-end-down" is just an easily-understood nonce term. Your suggested nonce terms "blade away" or "blade-face-in" are similar, except they're not so reminiscent of "baby talk". I'm tempted to suggest say Hold the fan with the blades facing away from the baby (so there's no danger of those blades injuring the baby), but unless the fan is reversible, that implies it'll simply be drawing air away from the baby's face (where blowing air towards it would have a greater cooling effect).
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 24 at 10:53
  • To talk of a knife's 'pointy end' is to use baby talk. A knife may or may not have a *point".
    – Michael Harvey
    Jun 24 at 11:56
  • Yes, you can call the 'plastic tubes' blades because they represent the flat, sharp-edged blades of a real electric fan. You hold a knife with the point downwards.
    – Kate Bunting
    Jun 24 at 12:09
  • "Stick them with the pointy end" has become a bit of a meme since Game of Thrones.
    – DoneWithThis.
    Jun 24 at 12:57
  • "hold the knife with the pointed end down" is a perfectly ordinary and grammatical sentence, whereas a hyphenated "blade-away" is a new construction, following the grammar rules of some unknown foreign language. Although, you could say in English "Hold the blade away from (whatever)", without a hyphen.
    – Sam
    Jun 27 at 3:21

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