FOMENT

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


Etymology

Verb

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

Noun

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



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Word of the Day

27 April 2024

GREAT

(adjective) remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree or magnitude or effect; “a great crisis”; “had a great stake in the outcome”


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Coffee Trivia

An article published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch in 2012 shows heavy coffee drinkers live longer. The researchers examined data from 400,000 people and found out that men who drank six or more coffee cups per day had a 10% lower death rate.

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