FOMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foment mean? 

• FOMENT (verb)
  The verb FOMENT has 2 senses:

1. try to stir up public opinion

2. bathe with warm water or medicated lotions

  Familiarity information: FOMENT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOMENT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they foment    ... he / she / it foments   
Past simple: fomented   
Past participle: fomented   
-ing form: fomenting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Try to stir up public opinion

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

agitate; foment; stir up

Hypernyms (to "foment" is one way to...):

provoke; stimulate (provide the needed stimulus for)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "foment"):

rumpus (cause a disturbance)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

fomentation (deliberate and intentional triggering (of trouble or discord))

fomenter (one who agitates; a political troublemaker)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Bathe with warm water or medicated lotions

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

His legs should be fomented

Hypernyms (to "foment" is one way to...):

bathe (cleanse the entire body)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

fomentation (application of warm wet coverings to a part of the body to relieve pain and inflammation)

 Context examples 

The maid had entered with us, and began once more to foment the bruise upon her mistress’s brow.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

What had just passed; what Mrs. Reed had said concerning me to Mr. Brocklehurst; the whole tenor of their conversation, was recent, raw, and stinging in my mind; I had felt every word as acutely as I had heard it plainly, and a passion of resentment fomented now within me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)