FERMENT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Ferment

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/fərmˈɛnt/ /fˈərmɛnt/ Listen

noun

Ferment n.

That which causes fermentation, as yeast, barm, or fermenting beer. Note: Ferments are of two kinds: (a) Formed or organized ferments. (b) Unorganized or structureless ferments. The latter are now called enzymes and were formerly called soluble ferments or chemical ferments. Ferments of the first class are as a rule simple microscopic vegetable organisms, and the fermentations which they engender are due to their growth and development; as, the acetic ferment, the butyric ferment, etc. See Fermentation. Ferments of the second class, on the other hand, are chemical substances; as a rule they are proteins soluble in glycerin and precipitated by alcohol. In action they are catalytic and, mainly, hydrolytic. Good examples are pepsin of the dastric juice, ptyalin of the salvia, and disease of malt. Before 1960 the term "ferment" to mean "enzyme" fell out of use. Enzymes are now known to be globular proteins, capable of catalyzing a wide variety of chemical reactions, not merely hydrolytic. The full set of enzymes causing production of ethyl alcohol from sugar has been identified and individually purified and studied. See enzyme.

Intestine motion; heat; tumult; agitation. "Subdue and cool the ferment of desire." "the nation is in a ferment."

A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation. (R.) "Down to the lowest lees the ferment ran."

ferment oils, volatile oils produced by the fermentation of plants, and not originally contained in them. These were the quintessences of the alchemists.

verb

Ferment v. t. (past & past part. fermented; pres. part. fermenting) To cause ferment or fermentation in; to set in motion; to excite internal emotion in; to heat. "Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood."

Ferment v. i.

To undergo fermentation; to be in motion, or to be excited into sensible internal motion, as the constituent particles of an animal or vegetable fluid; to work; to effervesce.

To be agitated or excited by violent emotions. "But finding no redress, ferment and rage." "The intellect of the age was a fermenting intellect."

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Etymology of 'Ferment'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ferment" Quotes from Famous Books

... to give freedom to the city, but clockwork. He was in the perilous situation of having to rule a commonwealth without life, without elasticity, without capacity of self-movement, yet full of such material as, left alone, might ferment, and breed a revolution. In this perplexity, he had recourse to advisers. The most experienced politicians, philosophical theorists, practical diplomatists, and students of antique history were requested to furnish him with plans for a new constitution, ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series • John Addington Symonds

... Indeed, phenomena have there occurred of a nature so completely unexpected—so entirely novel—so utterly at variance with preconceived opinions—as to leave no doubt on my mind that long ere this all Europe is in an uproar, all physics in a ferment, all reason and astronomy ...

— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... revolution, which swept over the greater states, did not spare the small. The Duke of Coburg-Gotha's subjects, who had seemed so happily situated and so contented at the time of the Queen's visit, were in a ferment like the rest of their countrymen. Bellona's hot breath was in danger of withering the flowers of that Arcadia. The Princes of Leiningen and Hohenlohe, the Queen's brother and brother- in-law, were practically dispossessed of seigneurial ...

— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, (Victoria) Vol II • Sarah Tytler

... Language had something to say in the matter of Evolutionism, and I know that those whom it most concerned were turning their thoughts in good earnest to the difficulties which I had pointed out. Iwanted no more, and I thought it best to let the matter ferment for a time. ...

— Chips from a German Workshop - Volume IV - Essays chiefly on the Science of Language • Max Muller

... January, 1482, is not, however, a day of which history has preserved the memory. There was nothing notable in the event which thus set the bells and the bourgeois of Paris in a ferment from early morning. It was neither an assault by the Picards nor the Burgundians, nor a hunt led along in procession, nor a revolt of scholars in the town of Laas, nor an entry of "our much dread lord, monsieur the king," nor even a ...

— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

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