Leaven

/ˈlɛv.ən/ · noun

Meaning

Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods..

Definitions by Sense

1. Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
2. (figurative) Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.
3. (Judaism) Chametz.
4. (transitive) To add a leavening agent.
5. (transitive) To cause to rise by fermentation.
6. (transitive, figuratively) To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc.
7. (transitive, figuratively) To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
8. To rise or become larger; to prove.

Example Sentences

Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

On the far side was reflected a single red and meteoric cloud, which had treasured one last crimson ray from the sunset, or perhaps nursed within it the fiery leaven.

The leaven of insincerity worked through all the fibres of his being.

On the fourteenth day of Nisan men search for leaven by candlelight.

Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.

Duke. No more euasion: We haue with a leauen'd, and prepared choice Proceeded to you; therefore take your honors:[...]

“A tinge of Jewish blood is not a bad thing. It leavens the”—she looked at him—“stolid stupidity of the ordinary Englishman.”

With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]

Synonyms for leaven

Antonyms for leaven

Related Words

Word Forms

• leavens
• leavening
• leavened
• leven

Usage Notes

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