[a. F. fermenter, ad. L. fermentāre, f. fermentum leaven: see prec. sb.]
1. intr. Of material substances (in early use primarily of dough or saccharine fluids): To undergo the action of a ferment; to suffer fermentation; to ‘work.’ (The precise meaning has varied with that of the sbs. FERMENT, FERMENTATION.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxviii. (1495), 644. Soure dough hyghte fermentum, for it makyth paast ferment and maketh it also aryse [excrescere et fervere facit pastam].
1663. Cowley, Verses, To Royal Society, iv.
| ’Till all their juyce did in one Vessel joyn, | |
| Ferment into a Nourishment Divine, | |
| The thirsty Soul’s refreshing Wine. |
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 190. Flies swarming, about any piece of flesh that does begin a little to ferment.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 436.
| The tainted Blood, in this close Prison pent, | |
| Begins to boyl, and thro’ the Bones ferment. |
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 66. These mineral Substances … ferment, rise up in Vapours and Steams.
1791. Beddoes, in Phil. Trans., LXXXI. 174. As it approaches more and more towards nature [malleable iron] it adheres less; and when the tools come clear up out of the mass, he judges it to be fermented enough [cf. FERMENTATION 1 d].
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 6. Dung which has fermented, so as to become a mere soft cohesive mass, has generally lost from one third to one half of its most useful constituent elements.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 370. The blue precipitate … is removed into a copper boiler till it assumes the appearance of effervescing, or till it ferments, as the planters term it.
1842. A. Combe, Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4), 290. We allow bread to ferment.
b. fig.
1671. Milton, Samson, 617.
| My griefs not only pain me | |
| As a lingring disease, | |
| But finding no redress, ferment and rage. |
1771. Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 3 July. These reflections fermented in my mind.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. lxvii. 686. Fanaticism fermented in anarchy.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1885) I. i. 65. The northern counties were fermenting in a half-suppressed rebellion.
1879. O. W. Holmes, Motley, ii. 10. His mind was doubtless fermenting with projects which kept him in a fevered and irritable condition.
2. trans. To subject to fermentation; to cause fermentation in.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Roots, II. § 18 (1682), 83. The Sap … is … fermented therein.
1815. J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, II. 502. When liquors are fermented for the use of the table, they are put into casks while the fermentation is yet active.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 373. The yest, made use of in the process of fermenting the dough.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 272. Owing to the judicious concavity of the farm-yard, there was as much moisture as was necessary to ferment the straw.
fig. 1759. R. Hurd, Dial. i. Sincerity in Commerce, 29. Fanaticism … fermented with the leaven of earthly avarice and ambition.
1791–1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 459/1. His [du Fresnoy’s] vast and restless curiosity fermenting his immense book-knowledge, with a freedom verging on cynical causticity, led to the pursuit of uncommon topics.
3. transf. and fig. To work up into a ferment or agitation; to excite, stir up.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, ix. § 5. When bitter Zeal was once fermented, through its aptitude to receive, and the Devil’s vigilance to administer occasions, the Orthodoxy or Heresie of lives soon became terms out-dated, and men were measur’d only by Opinions.
1704. Pope, Windsor Forest, 93.
| Ye vig’rous swains, while youth ferments your blood, | |
| And purer spirits swell the sprightly flood. |
1712. Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, II. Fierce Winds … with their furious Breath ferment the Deep.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., x. The landlady, assisted by a chamber-maid, proceeded to vinegar the forehead, beat the hands, titillate the nose, and unlace the stays of the spinster aunt, and to administer such other restoratives as are usually applied by compassionate females to ladies who are endeavouring to ferment themselves into hysterics.
1852. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Madonna, Introduction (1857), p. xxv. A mere contemplative enthusiasm, a superstition tinged with a morbid melancholy, fermented into life and form.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Religion, Wks. (Bohn), II. 96. England felt the full heat of the Christianity which fermented Europe, and drew, like the chemistry of fire, a firm line between barbarism and culture.
b. To exacerbate; to foment, inflame.
1660. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 306. Findinge our lettr either misunderstood or not regarded & the same disputes and worse troubles prosecuted and fermented as well against the merchants.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Eng. Satire, Wks. 1730, I. 28. Instead of correcting the manners of the age, he [Oldham] fermented the passions of the vicious, and render’d their minds only capable of such sentiments as revenge and fury suggested.
1764. Foote, Mayor of G., II. Wks. 1799, I. 186. A very manly action indeed to set married people a quarreling, and ferment a difference between husband and wife.
1868. Times, 21 Jan. To shew him fermenting the Garibaldian movements.
