yeast
/jiːst
/noun [mass noun]
1A microscopic fungus consisting of single oval cells that reproduce by budding, and capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Genus Saccharomyces, subdivision Ascomycotina.
- I heard and watched the students grasp the understanding of how yeast absorbs sugar.
- The yeast uses this sugar in the same way it uses the glucose in white sugar.
1.1A greyish-yellow preparation of the yeast fungus obtained chiefly from fermented beer, used as a fermenting agent, to raise bread dough, and as a food supplement.As beer brewers do with yeast, the Wiandts drop bits of mycelia into a malt sugar solution....
- The inclusion of yeast results in fermentation and causes the dough to rise, if it is left in a warm place.
- To make dough, allow yeast to stand in a small bowl until frothy, about 10 minutes.
1.2 [count noun] Biology Any unicellular fungus that reproduces vegetatively by budding or fission, including forms such as candida that can cause disease.In budding and fission yeasts, life span is defined by the methods used to measure it....
- Unlike other fungi, budding and fission yeasts lack endogenous DNA methylation.
- Candida species are polymorphic and can form colonies containing budding yeasts, pseudohyphae, and true hyphae.
Derivatives
yeastless
yeast-like
- Thrush is an infection in the mouth caused by a yeast-like organism called Candida albicans.
- Candidiasis is an infection caused by Candida, a yeast-like fungus.
- Pneumocystis carinii is a parasitic, sometimes pathogenic, yeast-like fungus found in the lungs of laboratory rats.
Origin
Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch gist and German Gischt 'froth, yeast', from an Indo-European root shared by Greek zein 'to boil'.