fo·ment

(fō-mĕnt′)

tr.v. fo·ment·ed, fo·ment·ing, fo·ments

1. To arouse or incite (trouble, for example).

2. To treat (the skin, for example) by fomentation.

[Middle English fomenten, to apply warm liquids to the skin, from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum, poultice, from fovēre, to warm; see dheg^wh- in Indo-European roots.]

fo·ment′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

fomenter - one who agitates; a political troublemaker

agitator

bad hat, mischief-maker, trouble maker, troublemaker, troubler - someone who deliberately stirs up trouble

fomenter

noun

One who agitates, especially politically:

agitator, inciter, instigator.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He was a sneak and a thief, a mischief-maker, a fomenter of trouble; and irate squaws told him to his face, the while he eyed them alert and ready to dodge any quick-flung missile, that he was a wolf and worthless and bound to come to an evil end.

View in context

And there were editorials written in which he was called an enemy of society, possessed of the manners and culture of a caveman, a fomenter of wasteful business troubles, the destroyer of the city's prosperity in commerce and trade, an anarchist of dire menace; and one editorial gravely recommended that hanging would be a lesson to him and his ilk, and concluded with the fervent hope that some day his big motor-car would smash up and smash him with it.

View in context

Mademoiselle Cormon, feeling the necessity of maintaining it against her own ducks, attempted to defend du Bousquier, who was being represented as a pernicious fomenter of intrigues, capable of any trickery.

View in context

Premier president egyptien democratiquement elu et issu des [beaucoup moins que]Freres musulmans[beaucoup plus grand que], il avait ete accuse de fomenter des actes terroristes.

Morsi, un mort qui va faire du bruit... - ALBAYANE

fomenter ("Bien dire fo et non x fro"), premier ("S'abrege en [1.sup.er]et [1.sup.er] et non x [1.sup.ere] au femenin") e vous (""Achetez-vous-en une et non x achetez-en-vous une") demonstram que o dicionario assume claramente que a sua missao e guiar de forma clara e precisa.

Os DICIONARIOS DE DUVIDAS: FERRAMENTAS PARA O FALANTE NATIVO/LANGUAGE USAGE GUIDES: LANGUAGE TOOLS FOR THE NATIVE SPEAKER

Like Luther, who was extremely focused on grace and yet found his tongue running to insults, The Pope Francis Little Book of Insults shows that our modern "pope of mercy" has a talent for abuse that can tend toward the philosophical but also toward the potty: "self-absorbed Promethean neo-Pelagian" and "fomenter of coprophagia" flow out of the contemporary papal mouth one after the other.

Preface

Le Soudan du Sud, devenu independant en juillet 2011, mais une guerre civile a eclate lorsque le president Kiir a accuse son vice-president, Riek Machar, de fomenter un coup d'Etat.

La faim, l'autre ennemi des civils