meaning of leaven
1. Any substance that produces, or is designed to produce, fermentation, as in dough or liquids; esp. , a portion of fermenting dough, which, mixed with a larger quantity of dough, produces a general change in the mass, and renders it light; yeast; barm.
2. Anything which makes a general assimilating (especially a corrupting) change in the mass.
3. To make light by the action of leaven; to cause to ferment.
4. To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
5. an influence that works subtly to lighten or modify something; "his sermons benefited from a leavening of
">humor"
Related Words
leaven | leavened | leavening | leavenous |
