Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To arouse or incite (trouble, for example).
- transitive verb To treat (the skin, for example) by fomentation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A warm lotion; fomentation.
- To apply warm lotions to; bathe with warm medicated liquids or warm water.
- To cherish with heat; encourage or promote the growth of by or as if by heat.
- To encourage; abet; instigate or promote by incitement: commonly used in a bad sense: as, to
foment discord.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Fomentation.
- noun State of excitation; -- perh. confused with
ferment . - transitive verb To apply a warm lotion to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge wet with warm water or medicated liquid.
- transitive verb obsolete To cherish with heat; to foster.
- transitive verb To nurse to life or activity; to cherish and promote by excitements; to encourage; to abet; to instigate; -- used often in a bad sense.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
incite or cause troublesome acts; toencourage ; toinstigate . - verb medicine To apply a
poultice to; tobathe with a cloth or sponge.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb try to stir up public opinion
- verb bathe with warm water or medicated lotions
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word foment.
Examples
-
That money should have gone to build up schools and foment democracy (Sen. Obama: please do not use the word "foment" - I'm not sure what it means).
Matt Littman: Friday Night's Debate: How Obama Can Deliver the KO 2008
-
Speak platitudes in English, foment terrorism in Arabic and the United States will apply pressure to fellow democracies over and against those who rule by bullets rather than ballots. "
-
Putting aside for the moment my surprise that Dubya even knows the meaning of the word "foment," I think a GOP talking point i.e., what Tony Snow will say will be that Dubya said Friedman could be right, not that he actually was right.
Iraq: officially a quagmire Sinfonian 2006
-
Putting aside for the moment my surprise that Dubya even knows the meaning of the word "foment," I think a GOP talking point i.e., what Tony Snow will say will be that Dubya said Friedman could be right, not that he actually was right.
Archive 2006-10-15 Sinfonian 2006
-
The nut graph is this one, where Cramer explains how easy it is to create "foment" around a stock:
-
Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families, told the New York Times on Friday that his group would be "peaceful and lawful" and would not "foment" lingering rage at AIG
Latest Articles CNS News 2009
-
Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families, told the New York Times on Friday that his group would be "peaceful and lawful" and would not "foment" lingering rage at AIG "unnecessarily."
Latest Articles CNS News 2009
-
Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families, told the New York Times on Friday that his group would be "peaceful and lawful" and would not "foment" lingering rage at AIG
Latest Articles Cybercast News Service 2009
-
Isn't it weird that you never know about the s*** that's in the products you use until there's some kind of foment to take it out?
Minn. to ban mercury in beauty products on Yahoo! News GreenFertility 2007
-
Isn't it weird that you never know about the s*** that's in the products you use until there's some kind of foment to take it out?
Archive 2007-12-01 GreenFertility 2007
mahalie commented on the word foment
"The power of the keyword search has combined with the richness of the World Wide Web to foment a revolution in the way we do business." author Peter Morville in his book Ambient Findability
January 3, 2007
bilby commented on the word foment
"One key reason the Central Asians love to do business with China is that the Middle Kingdom, unlike both Russia and the United States, carries little modern imperial baggage. And of course, China will never carp about human rights or foment a color-coded revolution of any sort."
- Pepe Escobar, Blue Gold, Turkmen Bashes, and Asian Grids, tomdispatch.com, 12 May 2009.
May 13, 2009