foment
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
-
to encourage or instigate (trouble, discord, etc); stir up
-
med to apply heat and moisture to (a part of the body) to relieve pain and inflammation
Usage
Both foment and ferment can be used to talk about stirring up trouble: he was accused of fomenting/fermenting unrest . Only ferment can be used intransitively or as a noun: his anger continued to ferment (not foment ); rural areas were unaffected by the ferment in the cities
Other Word Forms
- fomentation noun
- fomenter noun
- unfomented adjective
Etymology
Origin of foment
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fomenten, from Late Latin fōmentāre, verbal derivative of Latin fōmentum “soothing application, poultice,” contraction of unattested fōvimentum, equivalent to fōv(ēre) “to keep warm” + -i- -i- + -mentum -ment
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A better strategy would focus on how we can work with our allies, not on fomenting domestic revolutions most of their citizens don’t want.
Those contests, like many others, involved months of trash-talking on both sides, and often foment internal warfare.
From Los Angeles Times
But it’s the lack of transparency and the 11-month delay in reporting the reading that has fomented community mistrust and raised questions regarding the military’s competency to safely clean up the polluted shipyard.
From Los Angeles Times
He condemned Fuentes, saying he was “fomenting Jew hatred, and his incitements are not only immoral and un-Christian, they risk violence.”
From Los Angeles Times
As so much of the culture divides itself into fomenting herds, Bargatze offers his fans the relief of a non-divisive presence.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
