to foment
- verb
- /foʊˈmɛnt/
- Formal
- Why is he fomenting this division and this hatred?
- foment a rebellion
- foment conflict
- foment violence
The longer you wait, the more the anxiety foments and works itself up.
- The longer you wait, the more the anxiety foments and works itself up.
- Why is he fomenting this division and this hatred?
- And you create you, you foment that anger right there.
- And what foments cancer, stress being obviously a huge factor.
- You know, both Facebook and Twitter early on, you know, they helped, you know, foment the Arab Spring.
- It's just, it's not as easy as sell for them, which is why he's fomenting A takeover.
- Now, triangulation is a way for a toxic leader to hold power in a workplace by fomenting chaos.
- And if they did, it would just foment and it would cause problems and it would be, it would be bad, right?
- They were hunting down the Contras because they were afraid that the Sandinistas would get pissed at them and start fomenting trouble in Costa Rica.
- I mean, he fomented the coup, the Pinochet coup in in Chile, which Pinochet was a bad guy.
Examples
-
And continued political tensions in Kashmir will tempt Islamabad to foment further discord.
Academic text (2006) -
Currently, six of ten inhabitants work in the service industries, much of this change fomented by tourism.
Academic text (1998) -
And if they did, it would just foment and it would cause problems and it would be, it would be bad, right?
-
And actions like these foment the threat of appropriate reactions.
-
You know, both Facebook and Twitter early on, you know, they helped, you know, foment the Arab Spring.
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The most straightforward way to destabilize Singapore is to foment racial and religious discord.
Academic text (1992) -
China continues to worry that instability to its west could foment unrest in its Muslim region, Xinjiang.
Academic text (2005) -
While the Bolsheviks firmly established their authority at home, the Comintern fomented revolution throughout the world.
-
Louis XIV's Jesuit advisors were instrumental in fomenting the Crown's ultimately disastrous suppression of Protestantism and Jansenism.
Academic text (1990) -
The leaders were accused of trying to foment unrest among the citizens through inflammatory speeches.
Synonyms
To push people to do violent or illegal acts
To make people feel strong emotions like anger or fear
To cause something bad to start
To cause trouble by saying things to make people argue
To make an argument or feeling worse by encouraging it
To cause fights or problems between people on purpose
To spread or encourage something bad, for example fear and rumors
Make people more angry and cause conflict between groups
To cause disagreement between people or groups
Antonyms
How Forceful
- NSFW
- Formal
Surface Forms
Etymology
Foment once meant to warm a sore with a hot cloth, from an old word fomentum meaning 'warm dressing' and fovere meaning 'to warm'. So to foment something now is like 'heating' feelings or trouble to make them grow, which is why it means to encourage unrest or violence.