Definition
• | Any substance that produces, or is designed to produce, fermentation, as in dough or liquids; esp., a portion of fermenting dough, which, mixed with a larger quantity of dough, produces a general change in the mass, and renders it light; yeast; barm. |
• | Anything which makes a general assimilating (especially a corrupting) change in the mass. |
• | To make light by the action of leaven; to cause to ferment. |
• | To imbue; to infect; to vitiate. |