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Infect vs Leaven - What's the difference?

infect | leaven |

As verbs the difference between infect and leaven

is that infect is to bring into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen) while leaven is to add a leavening agent.

As a adjective infect

is (obsolete) infected.

As a noun leaven is

any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.

infect

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To bring into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen).
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke
  • , title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola.}}
  • To make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion.
  • Antonyms

    * disinfect

    Derived terms

    * infection * infectible

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Infected.
  • * 1602 , , I. iii. 187:
  • And in the imitation of these twain, / Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns / With an imperial voice, many are infect .
    ----

    leaven

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
  • (figurative) Anything that makes a general assimilating (especially a corrupting) change in the mass.
  • * Bible, Luke xii. 1
  • Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

    Derived terms

    * leavenless * natural leaven

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To add a leavening agent.
  • To cause to rise by fermentation.
  • (figuratively) To temper an action or decision.
  • *
  • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get
  • To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
  • * Milton
  • With these and the like deceivable doctrines, he leavens also his prayer.

    Derived terms

    * leavened * leavening * unleavened

    See also

    * yeast