foment
(verb) bathe with warm water or medicated lotions; “His legs should be fomented”
agitate, foment, stir up
(verb) try to stir up public opinion
Source: WordNet® 3.1
foment (third-person singular simple present foments, present participle fomenting, simple past and past participle fomented)
To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.
(medicine) To apply a poultice to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge.
Synonym: beath
foment (plural foments)
Fomentation.
Source: Wiktionary
Fo*ment", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fomented; p. pr. & vb. n. Fomenting.] Etym: [F. fomenter, fr. L. fomentare, fr. fomentum (for fovimentum) a warm application or lotion, fr. fovere to warm or keep warm; perh. akin to Gr. bake.]
1. To apply a warm lotion to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge wet with warm water or medicated liquid.
2. To cherish with heat; to foster. [Obs.] Which these soft fires . . . foment and warm. Milton.
3. To nurse to life or activity; to cherish and promote by excitements; to encourage; to abet; to instigate; -- used often in a bad sense; as, to foment ill humors. Locke. But quench the choler you foment in vain. Dryden. Exciting and fomenting a religious rebellion. Southey.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.
