Ferment
noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Something, such as a yeast or barm, that causes fermentation.
- 2 a process in which an agent causes an organic substance to break down into simpler substances; especially, the anaerobic breakdown of sugar into alcohol wordnet
- 3 A state of agitation or of turbulent change.
"Subdue and cool the ferment of desire."
- 4 a state of agitation or turbulent change or development wordnet
- 5 A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation.
"A Rage of Pleaſure madden'd every Breaſt, / Down to the loweſt Lees the Ferment ran: [...]"
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- 6 a substance capable of bringing about fermentation wordnet
- 7 A catalyst.
- 1 To react, using fermentation; especially to produce alcohol by aging or by allowing yeast to act on sugars; to brew.
"The cleanup job would turn out to be possibly second only to body-recovery duty in terms of being a job that nobody wanted to get assigned to. Imagine, for a moment, a thick soup of oil, paper, ink, clothing, raw meat and other fresh provisions, and worse, that had all been left to collect together in semi-warm water, all enclosed in a large metal container that had then been subjected to heating by first fire and then repeated warm Hawaiian days, and then left to ferment for over a month, and then with most of the water drained away and all the remaining solid and semi-liquid mass collecting together in pools and heaps across multiple decks, still in a relatively-enclosed environment."
- 2 go sour or spoil wordnet
- 3 To stir up, agitate, cause unrest or excitement in.
"Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood."
- 4 cause to undergo fermentation wordnet
- 5 work up into agitation or excitement wordnet
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- 6 be in an agitated or excited state wordnet
Example
More examples"The whole town was in a ferment."
Etymology
From Middle English ferment, from Middle French ferment, from Latin fermentāre (“to leaven, ferment”), from fermentum (“substance causing fermentation”), from fervēre (“to boil, seethe”). See also fervent.