Secrete Meaning
/sɪˈkɹiːt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjSeparated.
verbTo extract a substance from blood, sap, or similar to produce and emit waste for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function.
Sentence Examples
If a woman masturbates, she will secrete female hormones and become more feminine.
Glands secrete chemical substances into the body.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The endocrine gland will ____ hormones that regulate metabolism into the bloodstream.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Certain glands in the body ____ hormones that regulate growth and metabolism.
Word Origin & History
First attested in 1678: from Latin sēcrētus (“[having been] separated”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Why one set of cells should secrete bile, another urea, and so on, we do not know."
— 1842, William Benjamin Carpenter, Principles of Human Physiology:
"Many tumors secrete two or more different hormones."
— 2008, Stephen J. McPhee, Maxine A. Papadakis, et al., Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, McGraw-Hill Medical, page 1202:
"Let me not be misunderstood. I see as clearly as any man possibly can, and rate as highly, the value of wealth, and of hereditary wealth, as the security of refinement, the feeder of all those arts that ennoble and beautify life, and as making a country worth living in. Many an ancestral hall here in England has been a nursery of that culture which has been of example and benefit to all. Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting."
— 1887, James Russell Lowell, Democracy and Other Addresses, published 1892, page 15:
"With those words the passenger opened the coach-door and got in; not at all assisted by his fellow-passengers, who had expeditiously secreted their watches and purses in their boots, and were now making a general pretence of being asleep."
— 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter II, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
"Plaintiffs filed an affidavit for an attachment, alleging that defendant was about to assign, secrete, and dispose of his property with intent to delay and defraud his creditors, and was about to convert his property into money to place it beyond the reach of his creditors."
— 1914, The Pacific Reporter, volume 142, West Publishing Company, page 450:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The endocrine gland will ____ hormones that regulate metabolism into the bloodstream.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Certain glands in the body ____ hormones that regulate growth and metabolism.