leaven
a substance, as yeast or baking powder, that causes fermentation and expansion of dough or batter.
fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
an element that produces an altering or transforming influence.
to add leaven to (dough or batter) and cause to rise.
to permeate with an altering or transforming element.
Origin of leaven
1Words Nearby leaven
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use leaven in a sentence
“So you give the right information” but leaven it with laughs.
Then they began to talk among themselves: what had they done to be thus bidden to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees?
Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline | Jennie M. DrinkwaterOn these few occasions indeed it would even appear to be tinctured with some slight leaven of good-nature.
A Cursory History of Swearing | Julian SharmanIn a word, superstition is a dangerous leaven, that is fitted to corrupt even the most honest hearts.
Letters To Eugenia | Paul Henri Thiry HolbachThe knowledge that before long he would take unto himself a wife was a leaven that leavened every thought and every act.
Robert Annys: Poor Priest | Annie Nathan Meyer
Even Canada, with its leaven of Orangemen, was to be honoured with the speeches of an orator of second-rate powers.
Hyacinth | George A. Birmingham
British Dictionary definitions for leaven
/ (ˈlɛvən) /
any substance that produces fermentation in dough or batter, such as yeast, and causes it to rise
a piece of such a substance kept to ferment a new batch of dough
an agency or influence that produces a gradual change
to cause fermentation in (dough or batter)
to pervade, causing a gradual change, esp with some moderating or enlivening influence
Origin of leaven
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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