Yeast

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Yeast \Yeast\, n. [OE. [yogh]eest, [yogh]est, AS. gist; akin to
     D. gest, gist, G. gischt, g[aum]scht, OHG. jesan, jerian, to
     ferment, G. gischen, g[aum]schen, g[aum]hren, Gr. ? boiled,
     zei^n to boil, Skr. yas. [root]111.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. The foam, or troth (top yeast), or the sediment (bottom


        yeast), of beer or other in fermentation, which contains
        the yeast plant or its spores, and under certain
        conditions produces fermentation in saccharine or
        farinaceous substances; a preparation used for raising
        dough for bread or cakes, and making it light and puffy;
        barm; ferment.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Spume, or foam, of water.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              They melt thy yeast of waves, which mar
              Alike the Armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar.
                                                    --Byron.
        [1913 Webster]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Yeast cake}, a mealy cake impregnated with the live germs of
        the yeast plant, and used as a conveniently transportable
        substitute for yeast.
  
     {Yeast plant} (Bot.), the vegetable organism, or fungus, of
        which beer yeast consists. The yeast plant is composed of
        simple cells, or granules, about one three-thousandth of
        an inch in diameter, often united into filaments which
        reproduce by budding, and under certain circumstances by
        the formation of spores. The name is extended to other
        ferments of the same genus. See {Saccharomyces}.
  
     {Yeast powder}, a baling powder, -- used instead of yeast in
        leavening bread.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  yeast
       n 1: a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to
            raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer
            or whiskey [syn: {barm}]
       2: any of various single-celled fungi that reproduce asexually
          by budding or division

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  21 Moby Thesaurus words for "yeast":
     agent, alterant, alterative, alterer, catalyst, catalytic agent,
     ferment, foam, froth, innovationist, innovator, introducer, lather,
     leaven, modificator, modifier, precursor, spume, suds, transformer,
     transmogrifier