secrete

«secrete» in Mova's school dictionary: to make and give out a liquid or substance from a part of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (secrete, secretes, secreted, secreting); noun secretion

meaning for a pupil

1) (science) To secrete is to make and give out a liquid or substance from a part of a plant or animal body: glands secrete sweat, tears and saliva. tree →

2) (formal) To secrete something can also mean to hide it secretly. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons, the stomach secretes acid, the salivary glands secrete saliva, the skin secretes sweat, bees secrete wax and some frogs secrete poison from their skin. In old stories, a character may secrete a letter in a drawer, meaning hide it.

examples

• Your mouth secretes saliva when you smell food. tree →
• Bees secrete wax to build their honeycomb. tree →
• Some frogs secrete poison through their skin. tree →
• The stomach secretes acid to digest food. tree →
• Sweat glands secrete sweat to cool you down. tree →
• Snails secrete slime so they can slide along. tree →
• (formal) She secreted the key inside her shoe. tree →

note

Say "si-KREET". Related to "secret" (the hiding sense) but the science sense means give out. Noun: secretion. Do not confuse with "excrete" (get rid of waste).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «secrete» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.