gland

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cell, a group of cells, or an organ that produces a secretion for use elsewhere in the body or in a body cavity or for elimination from the body.
2. n. Any of various organs, such as lymph nodes, that resemble true glands but perform a nonsecretory function.
3. n. Botany An organ or a structure that secretes a substance.
4. n. A device, such as the outer sleeve of a stuffing box, designed to prevent a fluid from leaking past a moving machine part.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In anatomy: A lymphatic ganglion; one of the numerous small, smooth, rounded organs which occur in the course of the lymphatics: formerly more fully called conglobate gland. See cut under lymphatic.
2. n. Some secretory part or organ; a secreting crypt, follicle, or the like, generally of mucous or tegumentary surfaces, or a conglomeration of such parts composing some organ which secretes or excretes a substance peculiar to itself, as the liver, kidney, pancreas, parotid gland, testicle, etc., or the lacrymal, sebaceous, salivary, gastric, intestinal, and other glands. Glands, thus specifically defined, are either simple, consisting of a single secretory follicle or recess, or compound, consisting of an aggregate of such structures; the latter are also called tubular, saccular, racemose, etc., according to their intimate structure. The so-called ductless or vascular glands (see ) are not in this category, it being the essential character of a gland in this sense that it have an outlet for its special secretion. Glands of both these kinds were formerly classed as conglomerate glands, in distinction from conglobate or lymphatic glands.
3. n. Some smooth rounded part or organ of undetermined function, as the spleen and the thyroid and thymus. See ductless gland, below
4. n. The glans penis or glans clitoridis, the head of the penis or of the clitoris.
5. n. In botany: An acorn; also, the similar involucrate nut of the hazel, beech, and chestnut, A secreting organ upon the surface of any part of a plant, or partially embedded in it. The term is extended to include also any protuberance or structure of a similar nature, though it may not secrete. Glands vary much in form and appearance, and in the character of their secretions.
6. n. In machinery, a contrivance, consisting of a cross-piece or clutch, for engaging or disengaging machinery moved by belts or bands.
7. n. In steam-engines and other machines:
8. n. A stuffing-box.
9. n. A joint so tightly packed as to retain oil or other lubricating fluid for a considerable length of time. Also called gland-box.
10. n. In human anatomy, a small conglomerate body about as large as a pea, lying near the tip of the coccyx, the exact structure and function of which is uncertain. It is intimately connected with the arteries and nerves, and is probably not of glandular character. It is also called Luschka's gland, after ita first describer, and by Arnold glomerulus arteriococcygeus.
11. n. In botany, the stomates or breathing-pores of a leaf.
12. n. The sliding member of an engine stuffing-box, by which the packing is compressed against the rod by endwise pressure from the bolts or nut.
13. n. In founding: A clamp; a hooked bar used for clamping together the parts of a molder's flask.
14. n. A plate through which the ends of a binding-band or clevis pass; a clip.
15. n. In entomology, paired or single glands situated near the rectum and usually connected with it. The secretion of these glands is frequently fetid in odor, and they then function as repugnatorial organs.
16. n. In Uncinaria, a pair of pear-shaped bodies of unknown function, which lie one on each side of the pharynx and probably open externally near the mouth.
17. n. Eversible repugnatorial glands situated in the coxa of certain of the lower insects, as the Symphyla and Synaptera. See defensive glands.

Wiktionary

1. n. zoology An organ that synthesizes a substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it, often into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).
2. n. botany A secretory structure on the surface of an organ.
3. n. mechanical a compressable cylindrical case and its contents around a shaft where it passes through a barrier, intended to prevent the passage of a fluid past the barrier. Examples:

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An organ for secreting something to be used in, or eliminated from, the body
2. n. 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.
3. n. A special organ of plants, usually minute and globular, which often secretes some kind of resinous, gummy, or aromatic product.
4. n. Any very small prominence.
5. n. (Steam Mach.) The movable part of a stuffing box by which the packing is compressed; -- sometimes called a follower. See Illust. of Stuffing box, under Stuffing.
6. n. (Mach.) The crosspiece of a bayonet clutch.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of various organs that synthesize substances needed by the body and release it through ducts or directly into the bloodstream