FERMENT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... days kept me in a positive ferment of curiosity. In the first place an inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department came down and browsed about the place in company with the sergeant. Then Mr. Bashfield, who was to conduct the prosecution, ...

— John Thorndyke's Cases • R. Austin Freeman

... what may be called the civil and religious storm-and-stress period through which the Middle passed into the modern age, there came a great literary foregleam of the new life upon which the world was about to enter. From Italy, where the European ferment, both in its political and its spiritual character, mainly centred, came the prophecy of the new day, in a poet's "vision of the invisible world"—Dante's Divina Commedia—wherein also the deeper history of the visible world of man was both embodied ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... reigning sovereign who is above being embarrassed, who may speak, without shamefacedness, of anything, even of moral values, that subject tabu in sophisticated conversation. "Ah, just a notion of mine that perhaps all this modern ferment of what's known as 'social conscience' or 'civic responsibility,' isn't a result of the sense of duty, but of the old, ...

— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield

... bring about in the parts where they settle that micro-organisms disturb the health of the patient. In deriving nourishment from the complex organic compounds in which they nourish, the organisms evolve, probably by means of a ferment, certain chemical products of unknown composition, but probably colloidal in nature, and known as toxins. When these poisons are absorbed into the general circulation they give rise to certain groups of symptoms—such as rise ...

— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

... she held in her hand—a sort of Annunciation in which genius shone like an immanent light—had the powers of a talisman. Hortense felt such a surge of happiness, that she almost doubted whether the tale were true; there was a ferment in her blood, and she laughed wildly to ...

— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac

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