Definition of leaven

• n. - Any substance that produces, or is designed to produce, fermentation, as in dough or liquids; esp., a portion of fermenting dough, which, mixed with a larger quantity of dough, produces a general change in the mass, and renders it light; yeast; barm.
• n. - Anything which makes a general assimilating (especially a corrupting) change in the mass.
• v. t. - To make light by the action of leaven; to cause to ferment.
• v. t. - To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.