Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The watery mixture of secretions from the salivary and oral mucous glands that lubricates chewed food, moistens the oral walls, and contains ptyalin.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Spittle; the mixed secretion of the salivary glands and of the mucous membrane of the mouth, a colorless ropy liquid which normally has an alkaline reaction. Its physiological use is to keep moist the tongue, mouth, and fauces. thus aiding the sense of taste, and to assist mastication and deglutition. Specifically, saliva is the secretion of the salivary glands, which in man and many other animals contains a digestive ferment, ptyalin. See
ptyalin , and cuts underparotid and salivary. - n. In entomology, a neutral alkaline fluid secreted by the salivary glands when these are present, and, in their absence, by the epithelial lining of the esophagus. It has the same property as the saliva of vertebrates in transforming starchy foods into glucose.
Wiktionary
- n. A clear, slightly alkaline liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands, consisting of water, mucin, protein, and enzymes, It moistens the mouth, lubricates ingested food, and begins the breakdown of starches.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The secretion from the salivary glands.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a clear liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands of the mouth; moistens the mouth and starts the digestion of starches
Etymologies
- Latin salīva.
Examples
“The procedure bathes the eye in saliva, which is mostly water but also contains a mild thickening protein called muscin, which could help the eye retain moisture better.”
“During the Nazi occupation of Poland, people frequently sent postcards containing hidden messages written in saliva and even urine.”
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“The tabloid Expressen says hairs and saliva from a moose — aka a European elk — were found on the victim's clothes.”
“Luckily I'm only exposed to the photos on the web as Nag saliva is a toxic substance and would destroy the whole lot.”
“Use of the excipient could allow the creation of tablets that are hard and resistant to damage during handling, yet still disintegrate quickly in saliva after dosing.”
“Normally, saliva is part of the natural re-enamelling of the teeth.”
“And if he breathes on you, the Komodo dragon saliva is deadly.”
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“Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simple "dipstick" test for detecting cocaine and other drugs in saliva, urine or blood serum.”
“In the case of viruses some are found in saliva (the noroviruses, as an example, but noteither HIV or HBV unless there's blood present) but typically they're at concentrations several orders of magnitude lower than what's found in feces.”
“He was working hard at being important, spraying fine white bubbles of sticky saliva from the split in his lip.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘saliva’.
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Band or Brand?
Band names that are also common words or phrases.
genesis, who, beatles, journey, germs, sublime, doors, cars, nirvana, bangles, tool, pixies and 192 more...
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[Open] Anadromes
An anadrome forms a different word (or phrase) when spelled backwards. Anadromes are also called volvograms, reversgrams, heteropalindromes, backwords, semordnilap or emordnilaps, and, regrettably...
desserts, stressed, trebled, satraps, reviled, Delbert, deliver, treble, warder, visual, sports, strops and 41 more...
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feed me
fodder
tripe, trotter, belly, beef, oyster, ei, beanz, ale, bier, jerez, crunch, saliva and 8 more...
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vile, so vile!
the bad, and the ugly...
moist, wet, ointment, chunk, saliva, damp, lick, runny, piddle, salivate, clammy, crust and 4 more...

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