Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- Anatomy.
- a cell, group of cells, or organ producing a secretion.
- any of various organs or structures resembling the shape but not the function of true glands.
- Botany. a secreting organ or structure.
noun Machinery.
- a sleeve within a stuffing box, fitted over a shaft or valve stem and tightened against compressible packing in such a way as to prevent leakage of fluid while allowing the shaft or stem to move; lantern ring.
- stuffing box.
noun
- a cell or organ in man and other animals that synthesizes chemical substances and secretes them for the body to use or eliminate, either through a duct (exocrine gland) or directly into the bloodstream (endocrine gland)See also exocrine gland, endocrine gland
- a structure, such as a lymph node, that resembles a gland in form
- a cell or organ in plants that synthesizes and secretes a particular substance
noun
- a device that prevents leakage of fluid along a rotating shaft or reciprocating rod passing through a boundary between areas of high and low pressure. It often consists of a flanged metal sleeve bedding into a stuffing box
1690s, from French glande (Old French glandre, 13c.), from Latin glandula “gland of the throat, tonsil,” diminutive of glans (genitive glandis) “acorn, nut; acorn-shaped ball,” from PIE root *gwele- “acorn” (cf. Greek balanos, Armenian kalin, Old Church Slavonic zelodi “acorn;” Lithuanian gile “oak”). Earlier English form was glandula (c.1400).
n.
- A cell, a group of cells, or an organ that produces a secretion for use in or for elimination from the body.
- Any of various organs, such as lymph nodes, that resemble true glands but perform a nonsecretory function.
- An organ or group of specialized cells in the body that produces and secretes a specific substance, such as a hormone. See also endocrine gland exocrine gland.