foment Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb try to stir up public opinion
    stir up; agitate.
  2. verb bathe with warm water or medicated lotions
    • His legs should be fomented

WordNet

Fo*ment" transitive verb
Etymology
F. fomenter, fr. L. fomentare, fr. fomentum (for fovimentum) a warm application or lotion, fr. fovere to warm or keep warm; perh. akin to Gr. to roast, and E. bake.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Fomented; present participle & verbal noun Fomenting
Definitions
  1. To apply a warm lotion to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge wet with warm water or medicated liquid.
  2. To cherish with heat; to foster. Obs.
    Which these soft fires . . . foment and warm. Milton.
  3. To nurse to life or activity; to cherish and promote by excitements; to encourage; to abet; to instigate; -- used often in a bad sense; as, to foment ill humors. Locke.
    But quench the choler you foment in vain. Dryden.
    Exciting and fomenting a religious rebellion. Southey.

Webster 1913