leaven

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Then they understood that the leaven was the doctrine and teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun An agent, such as yeast, that causes batter or dough to rise, especially by fermentation.
  2. noun An element, influence, or agent that works subtly to lighten, enliven, or modify a whole.
  3. transitive verb To add a rising agent to.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • But the leaven was at work which was bound to cause a revolution in the tastes of fifty million people. —  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5
  • Finally to quote the metaphor of J. Arthur Thomson, one may "think for a moment of a baker who has a very precious kind of leaven; he uses much of this in baking a large loaf; but he so arranges matters by a clever contrivance that part of the original leaven is always carried on unaltered, carefully preserved for the next baking. —  Applied Eugenics
  • Again the leaven was at work in her, and she was fulfilling the Law of the Camp Fire, which is to "Seek beauty Sahwah slept again after that and Gladys called all the girls together around the piano in the shack, where they stayed until supper time, singing softly under Gladys's direction. —  The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping
  • It also imperceptibly fostered sentiments confounding legality with grace, and the by-product of that subtle corrupting leaven which is apt to see a splint in the eye of another whilst unmindful of the beam in one's own Upon the whole, the religious status of the Boers may be fairly compared to that of the old American pilgrim fathers, only much less intolerant, fairly strict sabbatarians, and jealous in maintaining national and individual morality. —  Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked
  • But the leaven was at work which was bound to cause a revolution in the tastes of fifty million people Most of our best moves are accidents, and every good thing begins as something else. —  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05 Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

semblance ·  tinge ·  impress
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, from Latin levāre, to raise; see legwh- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also leven, levin; from Middle English levain, levein, from Old French levain, French levain = Provencal levam, from Middle Latin levamen (also, in reflection of the Old French, levanum; also levamentum), leaven, from Latin levamen, that which raises, an alleviation, from levare, raise: see levy.
  2. from leaven, n.
 

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/ˈlɛvn/
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