foment
verb (used with object)
to instigate or foster (discord, rebellion, etc.); promote the growth or development of.
were fomenting
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past progressiveof foment.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Pincus coined the phrase “revolution of the ants” to describe what he and his friends believed they were fomenting.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 12, 2015
By the late 1980s, while her contemporaries at Goldsmiths were fomenting a Britart revolution, Ray had established herself at a gallery in Drury Lane doing copies of Renoir, Monet, Caravaggio, Stubbs, Gauguin and Modigliani.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 22, 2013
It was Esquire Greenville's misfortune to come to his patrimony just as those unhappy troubles were fomenting which a few years after embroiled these kingdoms in one great and dismal Quarrel.
From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala
The King of England no longer delayed his departure, for messengers from his own country brought imperative news that his presence was required to defeat the intrigues that were fomenting against his crown.
From Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions — Volume 2 by Charles Mackay
Meanwhile, the French army was advancing into Spain while the English were fomenting among the Spanish people the hatred for the French.
From Simon Bolivar, the Liberator by Guillermo A. Sherwell
