3 entries under this word
n. [Lat. fermentum, contracted for fervimentum, from fervere, to be boiling hot, to boil, ferment; Fr. & Pr. ferment, Sp., Pg., & It. fermento.]
Sense 1. That which causes fermentation, as yeast, barm, or fermenting beer.
Sense 2. Intestine motion; heat; tumult; agitation.
Subdue and cool the ferment of desire. Rogers.
The nation is in a ferment. H. Walpole.
Sense 3. A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. FERMENTED; p. pr. & vb. n. FERMENTING.] [Lat. fermentare, Fr. fermenter, Sp. fermentar, It. fermentare.] To cause ferment or fermentation in; to set in motion; to excite to internal emotion; to raise by intestine motion; to heat.
While youth ferments the blood. Pope.
v. i. 1. To undergo fermentation; to be in motion, or to be excited into sensible internal motion, as the constituent particles of an animal or vegetable fluid; to work; to effervesce. 2. To be active or excited; to rage with anger. “But finding no redress, ferment and rage.” Milton. The intellect of the age was a fermenting intellect. De Quincey.