Find the word definition

Crossword clues for leaven

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
leaven
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A piece of dough was kept back after using the yeast and this is called leaven.
▪ None rejoice more in this leaven than the professional scholars themselves.
▪ This leaven was added the next time baking bread was done.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Feminist consciousness now leavens every relationship, every single social and professional encounter.
▪ His intellectualism now was leavened by experience.
▪ My affection for her was leavened with lesser likings and with admiration.
▪ Organist Dan Wall's power is leavened with subtlety and his four compositions are perfect vehicles for Abercrombie.
▪ What emerges from that tainted oven will likely be a typical loaf of local politics leavened by big money.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Leaven

Leaven \Leav"en\, n. [OE. levain, levein, F. levain, L. levamen alleviation, mitigation; but taken in the sense of, a raising, that which raises, fr. levare to raise. See Lever, n.]

  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.

    Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
    --Luke xii. 1.

Leaven

Leaven \Leav"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Leavened; p. pr. & vb. n. Leavening.]

  1. To make light by the action of leaven; to cause to ferment.

    A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
    --1 Cor. v. 6.

  2. To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.

    With these and the like deceivable doctrines, he leavens also his prayer.
    --Milton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
leaven

mid-14c., from Old French levain "leaven, sourdough" (12c.), from Latin levamen "alleviation, mitigation," but used in Vulgar Latin in its literal sense of "a means of lifting, something that raises," from levare "to raise" (see lever). Figurative use from late 14c.

leaven

c.1400, from leaven (n.). Related: Leavened; leavening.

Wiktionary
leaven

n. 1 Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods. 2 (context figurative English) Anything that makes a general assimilating change in the mass. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To add a leavening agent. 2 (context transitive English) To cause to rise by fermentation. 3 (context transitive figuratively English) To temper an action or decision. 4 To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.

WordNet
leaven

v. cause to puff up with a leaven; "unleavened bread" [syn: raise, prove]

leaven
  1. n. a substance used to produce fermentation in dough or a liquid [syn: leavening]

  2. an influence that works subtly to lighten or modify something; "his sermons benefited from a leavening of humor" [syn: leavening]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "leaven".

Further, leavened or unleavened are mere accidents of bread, which do not vary the species.

That is Bahaism, which, as it is now taking form, is a leaven rather than a cult.

Have we nothing to fear from the leaven of political fragmentarism in Europe?

Swede, a third-generation Ukrainian, and a third-generation Hutzul, with some Irish, English, Scots, Cherokee, and German thrown in for leavening.

With Alex gone, everything had the feel of bread dough with the leavening left out.

But an analogy is not an explanation, and why a few drops of yeast should change a saccharine mixture to carbonic acid and alcohol,--a little leaven leavening the whole lump,--not by combining with it, but by setting a movement at work, we not only cannot explain, but the fact is such an exception to the recognized laws of combination that Liebig is unwilling to admit the new force at all to which Berzelius had given the name so generally accepted.

Populist party is to prove itself capable of amalgamating a great national political organization or whether its work is to be done through a leavening of the old parties to a more or less extent with its doctrines and ideas, remains to be seen.

She would warrant he was having no trouble with leavening under his tight braies now.

Mrs Leavening writes that they mean to put up at the York House while they look about them for lodgings, and depend upon us to advise them, for they were never in Bath before, you know!

Mr and Mrs Leavening were expected to arrive that day at York House they had not yet done so, and were scarcely looked for until dinner-time.

She said nothing about it, merely assuring Selina that she had left a note at York House, to be delivered to Mrs Leavening upon her arrival.

Mrs Leavening how she had prospered that morning in her search for lodgings, he had no difficulty in obeying this behest.

The only difficulty he experienced was how to extricate himself from a discussion of all the merits, and demerits, of the several sets of apartments Mrs Leavening had inspected.

But having agreed with Selina that Axford Buildings were situated in a horrid part of the town, and with Mrs Leavening that Gay Street was too steep for elderly persons, he laughed, and disclosed with disarming candour that he knew nothing of either locality.

The next piece of Bath news came from Mrs Leavening, and interested her too much.