Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The yeasty foam that rises to the surface of fermenting malt liquors.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The scum or foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting; yeast.
  • noun Same as berm.
  • noun The bosom; the lap.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The lap or bosom.
  • noun Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete except in dialects Bosom, lap.
  • noun Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast.
  • noun A small flat round, individual loaf, or roll of bread.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English berme, from Old English beorma, yeast; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English bearm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English beorma; related to the dialectal (Low) German Bärm ("yeast"), from Middle Low German barm, berm. The cake sense is possibly a shortened form of barmcake, which would be made with yeast as described in that sense, or possibly it is from the Irish báirín breac, a type of cake.

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Examples

  • A large apron -- which Clarice called a barm-cloth -- protected the dress from stain.

    A Forgotten Hero Not for Him Emily Sarah Holt 1864

  • AlcoholAfter the liquid cools, yeast is added to form barm, which is put into fermentation tanks to convert the sugars into alcohol.

    Star Tim Walters 2010

  • I am assuming the "hops liquid natural starter" is a "barm", either traditional ale beer barm or simply liquid natural starter with hops added in.

    The Fresh Loaf 2010

  • By the way, another word for beer froth was "barm," which gave us the term "barmy" (in America, "balmy") for tipsy or feeble-minded.

    unknown title 2009

  • For those of us too brainy to watch soaps (except for Corrie and Katherine Kelly's wonderful portrayal of barm pot Becky) at new panel game for the recession, QE the Quantitave Easing game with Stephen Fry pilots at Boggart.

    Liberal Democrats in EastEnders 2009

  • Do you call a 'bread roll' a cob, batch, bread cake, barm cake or scuffler?

    March 2007 2007

  • The young man has erotic trmptations with all the wives in this small community, including a much older woman who seduces him in the top hallow of a barm, and she says “Touche le” exposing her breasts.

    What makes European erotic films of the seventies “euro chic” variety particularly interesting … « Jahsonic 2008

  • After making all the petty stuff and substituting baking in place of frying to save those innumerable calories (posts to come), I finally thought it was time to gather all my courage and muster my confidence and try to work in equanimity with the barm(yeast), which has failed me more than often.

    Archive 2008-07-01 bhags 2008

  • After making all the petty stuff and substituting baking in place of frying to save those innumerable calories (posts to come), I finally thought it was time to gather all my courage and muster my confidence and try to work in equanimity with the barm(yeast), which has failed me more than often.

    Rise and Roll bhags 2008

  • Iz okay if hims did, cuz teh fyre laydees wer in teh nawty barm wif him adn Maus furr a LONG tyme yesturdai…

    Cuzn cat visits for wknd - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

Comments

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  • bosom or yeast!

    February 8, 2013

  • "... primitive ales were made from naturally fermenting grains, and perhaps their yeasty barm was at first simply used to flavour doughs, a practice that--quite by chance--led to the discovery of the airy magic of yeast in baking."

    --Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 9

    January 6, 2017

  • A brewery to Angus has charm;

    He feels there he's safe from all harm:

    The vats and the kegs,

    The browst and the dregs,

    Enfold like a comforting barm.

    March 5, 2017