leaven

She leavened her straight talk about sex with regular doses of conventional morality.

That’s in keeping with a director who likes to leaven something profound with something ordinary.

In recent weeks, he’s leavened the attacks with humor, calling Trump “Sleepy Don” — a reference to reports that the former president has dozed off in a Manhattan courtroom during trial.

Seven years after her father’s disappearance, Diamond Newberry and her mother are struggling, but Diamond’s observations provide comic leavening.

It must be leavened with love and imagination.