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yeast
7 dictionary results for: Yeast
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
yeast       [yeest] Pronunciation Key,
–noun
1.any of various small, single-celled fungi of the phylum Ascomycota that reproduce by fission or budding, the daughter cells often remaining attached, and that are capable of fermenting carbohydrates into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
2.any of several yeasts of the genus Saccharomyces, used in brewing alcoholic beverages, as a leaven in baking breads, and in pharmacology as a source of vitamins and proteins. Compare bottom yeast, brewer's yeast, top yeast.
3.spume; foam.
4.ferment; agitation.
5.something that causes ferment or agitation.
–verb (used without object)
6.to ferment.
7.to be covered with froth.

[Origin: bef. 1000; ME ye(e)st (n.), OE gist, gyst; c. D gist, G Gischt yeast, foam, ON jastr yeast, Gk zestós boiled, Skt yásati (it) boils]

yeastless, adjective
yeastlike, adjective
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
yeast       (yēst)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
    1. Any of various unicellular fungi of the genus Saccharomyces, especially S. cerevisiae, reproducing by budding and from ascospores and capable of fermenting carbohydrates.
    2. Any of various similar fungi.
  1. Froth consisting of yeast cells together with the carbon dioxide they produce in the process of fermentation, present in or added to fruit juices and other substances in the production of alcoholic beverages.
  2. A powdered or compressed commercial preparation, having yeast cells and inert material such as meal and used chiefly as a leavening agent or as a dietary supplement.
  3. Foam; froth.
  4. An agent of ferment or activity: political agitators who are the yeast of revolution.

intr.v.   yeast·ed, yeast·ing, yeasts
  1. To ferment.
  2. To froth or foam.


[Middle English yeest, from Old English gist; see yes- in Indo-European roots.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
yeast 
O.E. gist "yeast," common W.Gmc. source (cf. M.H.G. gest, Ger. Gischt "foam, froth," O.H.G. jesan, Ger. gären "to ferment"), from PIE *jes- "boil, foam, froth" (cf. Skt. yasyati "boils, seethes," Gk. zein "to boil," Welsh ias "seething, foaming").

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
yeast

noun
1. a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey 
2. any of various single-celled fungi that reproduce asexually by budding or division 

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
yeast       (yēst)  Pronunciation Key 
Any of various one-celled fungi that reproduce by budding and can cause the fermentation of carbohydrates, producing carbon dioxide and ethanol. There are some 600 known species of yeast, though they do not form a natural phylogenic group. Most yeasts are ascomycetes, but there are also yeast species among the basidiomycetes and zygomycetes. The budding processes in yeasts show a wide range of variations. In many yeasts, for example, the buds break away as diploid cells. Other yeasts reproduce asexually only after meiosis, and their haploid buds act as gametes that can combine to form a diploid cell, which functions as an ascus and undergoes meiosis to produce haploid spores. Still other yeasts form buds in both haploid and diploid phases. The ascomycete yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used in baking to produce the carbon dioxide that leavens dough and batter. It has been the subject of extensive research in cell biology, and its genome was the first to be sequenced among eukaryotes. A variety of yeasts of the genus Saccharomyces are used in making beer and wine to provide alcohol content and flavor. Certain other yeasts, such as Candida albicans, are pathogenic in humans.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

yeast (yēst)
n.

  1. Any of various unicellular fungi of the genus Saccharomyces, especially S. cerevisiae, reproducing by budding and from ascospores and capable of fermenting carbohydrates.
  2. Any of various similar fungi.
  3. A commercial preparation in either powdered or compressed form containing yeast cells and inert material and used especially as a leavening agent or as a dietary supplement.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Yeast

Yeast\, n. [OE. [yogh]eest, [yogh]est, AS. gist; akin to D. gest, gist, G. gischt, g["a]scht, OHG. jesan, jerian, to ferment, G. gischen, g["a]schen, g["a]hren, Gr. ? boiled, zei^n to boil, Skr. yas. [root]111.]

1. The foam, or troth (top yeast), or the sediment (bottom yeast), of beer or other in fermentation, which contains the yeast plant or its spores, and under certain conditions produces fermentation in saccharine or farinaceous substances; a preparation used for raising dough for bread or cakes, and making it light and puffy; barm; ferment.

2. Spume, or foam, of water.

They melt thy yeast of waves, which mar Alike the Armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar. --Byron.

Yeast cake, a mealy cake impregnated with the live germs of the yeast plant, and used as a conveniently transportable substitute for yeast.

Yeast plant (Bot.), the vegetable organism, or fungus, of which beer yeast consists. The yeast plant is composed of simple cells, or granules, about one three-thousandth of an inch in diameter, often united into filaments which reproduce by budding, and under certain circumstances by the formation of spores. The name is extended to other ferments of the same genus. See Saccharomyces.

Yeast powder, a baling powder, -- used instead of yeast in leavening bread.

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