GLAND • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Gland

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/glænd/ Listen

noun

Gland n.

(Anat.)

(a)

An organ for secreting something to be used in, or eliminated from, the body; as, the sebaceous glands of the skin; the salivary glands of the mouth.

(b)

An organ or part which resembles a secreting, or true, gland, as the ductless, lymphatic, pineal, and pituitary glands, the functions of which are very imperfectly known. Note: The true secreting glands are, in principle, narrow pouches of the mucous membranes, or of the integument, lined with a continuation of the epithelium, or of the epidermis, the cells of which produce the secretion from the blood. In the larger glands, the pouches are tubular, greatly elongated, and coiled, as in the sweat glands, or subdivided and branched, making compound and racemose glands, such as the pancreas.

(Bot.)

(a)

A special organ of plants, usually minute and globular, which often secretes some kind of resinous, gummy, or aromatic product.

(b)

Any very small prominence.

(Steam Mach.) The movable part of a stuffing box by which the packing is compressed; sometimes called a follower.

(Mach.) The crosspiece of a bayonet clutch.

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Etymology of 'Gland'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gland" Quotes from Famous Books

... the beak and of the skull: in the proportions of the beak to the skull; in the number of tail-feathers; in the absolute and relative size of the feet; in the presence or absence of the uropygial gland; in the number of vertebrae in the back; in short, in precisely those characters in which the genera and species of birds differ ...

— Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews • Thomas Henry Huxley

... gland and hair on the leaf before experimenting; but it occurred to me that I might in some way affect the leaf; though this is almost impossible, as I scrutinised with equal care those that I put into distilled water (the same water being used ...

— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II • Francis Darwin

... skins of the blue fox, black fox, and red fox;[11] wolf skins, and the furs of the wolverene or glutton, and of the skunk—a handsome black-and-white creature of the weasel family, which emits a most disgusting smell from a gland in its body. (The skunk only comes from the south-central parts of the Canadian Dominion). At one time a good many swans' skins were exported for the sake of the down between the feathers, also ...

— Pioneers in Canada • Sir Harry Johnston

... sexes—egg and sperm. In most of the higher plants every blossom contains both the male organs (stamen and anther) and the female organs (style and germ). Every garden-snail produces in one part of its sexual gland eggs, and in another sperm. Many hermaphrodites can fructify themselves; in others, however, copulation and reciprocal fructification of both hermaphrodites are necessary for causing the development of the eggs. This latter case is evidently a ...

— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott

... to explain, but the idea of thieves had taken possession of the old man's pineal gland, and he kept coughing and screaming, and screaming and coughing, until the gracious Martha entered the apartment; and, having first outscreamed her father, in order to convince him that there was no danger, and to assure him that the intruder was their new lodger, and having as often ...

— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

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