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foment

1. To apply a warm lotion to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge wet with warm water or medicated liquid.

2. To cherish with heat; to foster. Which these soft fires . . . Foment and warm. (Milton)

3. To nurse to life or activity; to cherish and promote by excitements; to encourage; to abet; to instigate; used often in a bad sense; as, to foment ill humors. but quench the choler you foment in vain. (Dryden) exciting and fomenting a religious rebellion. (Southey)

Origin: f. Fomenter, fr. L. Fomentare, fr. Fomentum (for fovimentum) a warm application or lotion, fr. Fovere to warm or keep warm; perh. Akin to gr. To roast, and E. Bake.