• • (RP) IPA: /fəˈmɛnt/
  • (America) IPA: /fɚˈmɛnt/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈfɜːmɛnt/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈfɝmɛnt/

ferment (ferments, present participle fermenting; past and past participle fermented)

1. To react, using fermentation; especially to produce alcohol by aging or by allowing yeast to act on sugars; to brew.
2. To stir up, agitate, cause unrest or excitement in.
   • 1713, Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest:

     Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood.

   • 1726, James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, OCLC 642619686 ↗, lines 10–14, page 165 ↗:

     Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domain; / Trod the pure virgin-ſnows, myſelf as pure; / Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burſt; / Or ſeen the deep fermenting tempeſt brew'd, / In the grim evening ſky.

• German: gären
• Italian: fermentare
• Portuguese: fermentar
• Russian: броди́ть
• Spanish: fermentar

• German: stören, anstacheln
• Italian: fermentare
• Russian: волнова́ть

ferment (plural ferments)

1. Something, such as a yeast or barm, that causes fermentation.
2. A state of agitation or of turbulent change.

   • Subdue and cool the ferment of desire.

   • The nation is in a ferment.

   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 104

     Clad in a Persian-Renaissance gown and a widow's tiara of white batiste, Mrs Thoroughfare, in all the ferment of a Marriage-Christening, left her chamber on vapoury autumn day and descending a few stairs, and climbing a few others, knocked a trifle brusquely at her son's wife's door.

3. A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation.

   • Down to the lowest lees the ferment ran.

4. A catalyst.

• German: Gärmittel
• Portuguese: fermento
• Russian: ферме́нт

• Russian: возбужде́ние