What's the difference between leaden and leaven?

Leaden


Definition:

  • (a.) Made of lead; of the nature of lead; as, a leaden ball.
  • (a.) Like lead in color, etc. ; as, a leaden sky.
  • (a.) Heavy; dull; sluggish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There is a heavy, leaden feeling in your chest, rather as when someone you love dearly has died; but no one has – except, perhaps, you.
  • (2) In ancient Rome and during the Renaissance compression by means of leaden plates was a well-known treatment of cancer.
  • (3) DCMS secretary Maria Miller last week promised to fight for the arts: untouched by loftier values her leaden utilitarianism in calling the arts a "compelling product" came under fire, but she did lay out a good commercial case.
  • (4) There is no way that the show could have been made without it, because otherwise all the action would have been leaden with exposition.
  • (5) The murine dilute suppressor gene, dsu, was previously shown to suppress the dilute coat color phenotypes of mice homozygous for the dilute (d), leaden (ln), and ashen (ash) mutations.
  • (6) Sixty patients with probable atypical depression--defined as meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria for depressive illness, having reactive mood, and having one of four associated symptoms (hyperphagia, hypersomnolence, leaden feeling, and sensitivity to rejection)--took part in a study contrasting phenelzine, imipramine, and placebo.
  • (7) The football was leaden in the first half and, once again, there were times when an impatient crowd struggled to contain their frustrations.
  • (8) The syndrome is characterized by profound dysfunction of the central nervous system, silver-leaden colored hair, abnormal melanosomes and melanocytes, and abnormal inclusion bodies in fibroblasts, bone marrow histiocytes and lymphocytes which appear to represent abnormal lysosomal bodies.
  • (9) In addition, scatter radiation exposure of the head decreased by 54% by covering the patient with a rubber leaden blanket (0.25 mm Pb).
  • (10) They left as the leaden sun started to dip; federal police stretched yellow crime scene tape around the sites.
  • (11) 6.08pm BST 36 min: A leaden-footed touch from Weimann puts the ball out of play deep in Liverpool territory, surrendering possession to the visitors in the form of a throw-in.
  • (12) The hour struck, 9.17pm, and leaden silence fell, broken only by the babble of TV reporters beside their mobile trucks.
  • (13) In the fifteenth his legs were leaden; Frazier punished him immediately and before the round had gone a minute a sickeningly violent left hook smashed across the right side of Ali's face, instantly increasing the swelling that had developed there earlier and lifting him flat on his back with his legs kicking high towards the ring lights.
  • (14) If it’s just going to be leaden, and heavy, and bureaucratic, we will lose out.” Speaking to the Guardian as the CBI launches a new report analysing the factors that make some regions more economically successful than others, Fairbairn urged the government to invest more in boosting school standards in order to help address the financial concerns that led to Brexit.
  • (15) 9.13pm BST 12 min: A leaden touch from Jerome Boateng on the edge of his own penalty area puts Per Mertesacker under pressure from Slimani, but the German centre-half clears.
  • (16) As sendoffs go, it is probably fair to say Roy Hodgson hoped for better in England’s final match before Euro 2016 than seeing his team look so leaden, the crowd so bored they resorted to making their own entertainment and a tetchy press conference when the questions centred around whether his team were heading into another tournament without any clarity about their best way of playing.
  • (17) Dowsett set off at positively leaden pace in the opening lap and a half but once he hit cruising speed, he maintained the same even pace throughout, covering most of his laps in about 17sec, raising his game approaching the half-hour and pushing hard in the final 15 minutes.
  • (18) 14 min: A decent scoring opportunity for Brazil goes to waste after a disappointingly leaden-footed touch from Neymar, who is sporting an interesting mohawk type barnet that makes him resemble a toilet brush.
  • (19) Through the leaden rain of a battleship-grey morning in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Britain drifts a flurry of music by Antonio Vivaldi.
  • (20) An enhanced development of pituitary tumors was observed in virgin female mice of the C57 Leaden strain following repeated oral administration of synthetic progestins.

Leaven


Definition:

  • (n.) Anything which makes a general assimilating (especially a corrupting) change in the mass.
  • (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.
  • (v. t.) To make light by the action of leaven; to cause to ferment.
  • (v. t.) To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Gellatly believes that anyone can make their own bread at home and, for a sourdough loaf, the process begins with a tangy starter (sometimes also known as a mother or leaven).
  • (2) One reader wondered whether good fantasy narrative needed perceptions of "reality" in order "to leaven it".
  • (3) Any such levity, however, is leavened by the tacit acknowledgment that existence is futile, and we are all just bags of flesh and bones whiling away the days before death and putrefaction sets in.
  • (4) The predominance of S. exiguus, its vigor in the particular acidic environment of the sour dough, and the correlation of its numbers with the leavening function constitute strong evidence on the role of this organism in the sour dough system.
  • (5) There was always a rueful melancholy, stiffened by irony and leavened by humour about him.
  • (6) After the death of Alexander the Great in 323BC the Greek garrisons of India and Afghanistan found themselves cut off from their Mediterranean homeland, and had no choice but to stay on, intermingling with the local peoples, and leavening Indian learning with classical philosophy.
  • (7) Twenty breads with leavening times varying from 0 to 120 h were prepared.
  • (8) The phytic acid content of bread containing bran was reduced to about 40% after 2 h of leavening and to 15% after 2 d. No further decrease was observed.
  • (9) This paper takes as index the content of free acids and total acids, the action of pepsin in the stomachs of hungry mice, impelling functions and intestines of hungry mice and makes a comparison of the raw products with the processed products of medicated leaven.
  • (10) The Telegraph, for whom he writes that weekly column, says he would be the business secretary , but that must be the paper’s attempt to leaven all the hard news with comedy.
  • (11) Extrinsic labeling of the calcium of whole-wheat flour results in a degree of labeling homogeneity equivalent to that of intrinsic labeling, at least for a leavened bread product.
  • (12) The feasibility of adding chick-pea flour substituting part of wheat flour in yeast-leavened bread-making in order to increase the protein value, was studied.
  • (13) In the majority opinion of Kimble v Marvel Enterprises, justice Elena Kagan sprinkled quotes and allusions to Spider-Man into the court’s decision, using unusually wry language to leaven the ruling about a patent for “web-slinging fun”.
  • (14) The relative biological value of thiamin in leavened bread (whole wheat and thiamin-restored white) and thiamin mononitrate was examined by using thiamin-deficient rats as the test model.
  • (15) And God and the church who live in our cities want to be leaven in the dough, and relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side.” It was a message crafted for a city not famous for compassion but recognised as open, tolerant and dynamic.
  • (16) To study the biological value of kumyss leaven, experiments were made with mono-cultures contained by kumyss leaven.
  • (17) The accounts, in my view at least, are not sufficiently sifted and leavened and tempered by time and distance.
  • (18) These are admittedly extravagant additions and the leavened dough crust requires a little effort, too, but if this pudding didn't merit the work I'd be the first to forsake it.
  • (19) Although fructooligosaccharide inhibited the dough leavening ability of YOY920, white bread containing fructooligosaccharide could be produced in the defined dough formula using the new strain.
  • (20) Pitch Strenuous workouts leavened by lots of cheeky-chappie banter.