LEAVENING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Leavening

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/lˈɛvənɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Leaven v. t. (past & past part. leavened; pres. part. leavening)

To make light by the action of leaven; to cause to ferment. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."

To imbue; to infect; to vitiate. "With these and the like deceivable doctrines, he leavens also his prayer."

noun

Leavening n.

The act of making light, or causing to ferment, by means of leaven.

That which leavens or makes light.

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Etymology of 'Leavening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Leavening" Quotes from Famous Books

... reforming religion of the western part of Europe, so Mohammedanism had become the reforming religion of Asia. The latter was more exacting in its demands and more absolute in its sway than the former, spreading its doctrines mainly by force, while the former sought more to extend its doctrine by a leavening process. Nevertheless, when the two came in contact, a fierce struggle for supremacy ensued. The meteorlike rise of Mohammedanism had created consternation and alarm in the Christian world as early as the eighth century. There sprang ...

— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar

... heard what that fellow has been saying to me?" demanded Miss Cringle, with a spice of the old temper leavening ...

— Many Cargoes • W.W. Jacobs

... great majority of the population, and under such conditions its religion necessarily becomes a spiritual drug, administered for the purpose of subduing the popular discontent and relieving the popular misery. The only way the associated life of such a community can be radically improved is by the leavening of the inert popular mass. Their wants must be satisfied, and must be sharpened and increased with the habit of satisfaction. During the past hundred years every European state has made a great stride in the direction of arousing its poorer citizens to be more wholesomely active, ...

— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly

... a crew of between three and four hundred Royal Navy Reserve men, with a leavening of Royal Navy ratings and a few Marines. They appointed a Captain R.N. in command and two or three other naval officers, but by far the greater proportion of officers and crew belonged to the Reserve, and excellent ...

— Stand By! - Naval Sketches and Stories • Henry Taprell Dorling

... expectation of luminous instruction. She was used to being a law to herself, but she knew what she might and might not do, so that she was rather a by-law. She was the kind of girl that might have fancies for artists and poets, but might end by marrying a prosperous broker, and leavening a vast lump of moneyed and fashionable life with her culture, generosity, and good-will. The intellectual interests were first with her, but she might be equal to sacrificing them; she had the best heart, but she might know how to harden ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

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