gland

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A device, such as the outer sleeve of a stuffing box, designed to prevent a fluid from leaking past a moving machine part.
• noun Any of various organs or cell groups, such as the adrenal glands and the salivary glands, that are of endothelial origin and secrete a substance that is used or excreted by the body.
• noun Any of various organs, such as lymph nodes, that resemble true glands but perform a nonsecretory function.
• noun Botany An organ or a structure that secretes a substance.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun 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.
• noun In founding: A clamp; a hooked bar used for clamping together the parts of a molder's flask.
• noun A plate through which the ends of a binding-band or clevis pass; a clip.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun Eversible repugnatorial glands situated in the coxa of certain of the lower insects, as the Symphyla and Synaptera. See defensive glands.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun Some smooth rounded part or organ of undetermined function, as the spleen and the thyroid and thymus. See ductless gland, below
• noun The glans penis or glans clitoridis, the head of the penis or of the clitoris.
• noun 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.
• noun In machinery, a contrivance, consisting of a cross-piece or clutch, for engaging or disengaging machinery moved by belts or bands.
• noun In steam-engines and other machines:
• noun A stuffing-box.
• noun A joint so tightly packed as to retain oil or other lubricating fluid for a considerable length of time. Also called gland-box.
• noun 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.
• noun In botany, the stomates or breathing-pores of a leaf.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An organ for secreting something to be used in, or eliminated from, the body
• noun 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.
• noun A special organ of plants, usually minute and globular, which often secretes some kind of resinous, gummy, or aromatic product.
• noun Any very small prominence.
• noun (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.
• noun (Mach.) The crosspiece of a bayonet clutch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun 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:
• noun 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).
• noun botany A secretory structure on the surface of an organ.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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