Crossword clues for excretion
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Excretion \Ex*cre"tion\, n. [Cf. F. excr['e]tion.]
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The act of excreting.
To promote secretion and excretion.
--Pereira. That which is excreted; excrement.
--Bacon.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, "action of excreting;" 1620s, "that which is excreted," from French excrétion (16c.), from Latin excretionem (nominative excretio), noun of action from past participle stem of excernere "to sift out, separate" (see excrement).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The process of remove or ejecting material that has no further utility, especially from the body; the act of excrete. 2 Something being excreted in that manner.
WordNet
n. the bodily process of discharging waste matter [syn: elimination, evacuation, excreting, voiding]
waste matter (as urine or sweat but especially feces) discharged from the body [syn: body waste, excreta, excrement, excretory product]
Wikipedia
Excretion is the process by which metabolic wastes and other non-useful materials are eliminated from an organism. In vertebrates this is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after leaving the cell. Excretion is an essential process in all forms of life. For example, in mammals urine is expelled through the urethra, which is part of the excretory system. In single-celled organisms, waste products are discharged directly through the surface of the cell.
Green plants produce carbon dioxide and water as respiratory products. In green plants, the carbon dioxide released during respiration gets utilized during photosynthesis. Oxygen is a by product generated during photosynthesis, and exits through stomata, root cell walls, and other routes. Plants can get rid of excess water by transpiration and guttation. It has been shown that the leaf acts as an 'excretophore' and, in addition to being a green plant's primary organ of photosynthesis, is also used as the plant's method of excreting toxic wastes via diffusion. Other waste materials that are exuded by some plants — resin, saps, latex, etc. are forced from the interior of the plant by hydrostatic pressures inside the plant and by absorptive forces of plant cells. These latter processes do not need added energy, they act passively. However, during the pre-abscission phase, the metabolic levels of a leaf are high. Plants also excrete some waste substances into the soil around them.
In animals, the main excretory products are carbon dioxide, ammonia (in ammoniotelics), urea (in ureotelics), uric acid (in uricotelics), guanine (in Arachnida) and creatine. The liver and kidneys clear many substances from the blood (for example, in renal excretion), and the cleared substances are then excreted from the body in the urine and feces.
Aquatic animals usually excrete ammonia directly into the external environment, as this compound has high solubility and there is ample water available for dilution. In terrestrial animals ammonia-like compounds are converted into other nitrogenous materials as there is less water in the environment and ammonia itself is toxic.
Birds excrete their nitrogenous wastes as uric acid in the form of a paste. This is metabolically more expensive, but allows more efficient water retention and it can be stored more easily in the egg. Many avian species, especially seabirds, can also excrete salt via specialized nasal salt glands, the saline solution leaving through nostrils in the beak.
In insects, a system involving Malpighian tubules is utilized to excrete metabolic waste. Metabolic waste diffuses or is actively transported into the tubule, which transports the wastes to the intestines. The metabolic waste is then released from the body along with fecal matter.
The excreted material may be called dejecta or ejecta. In pathology the word ejecta is more commonly used.
Usage examples of "excretion".
A vial of that which is first passed in the morning, should be sent with the history of the case, as chronic rheumatism effects characteristic changes in this excretion, which clearly and unmistakably indicate the abnormal condition of the fluids of the body upon which the disease depends.
From observing its action in the cure of this and other miasmatic diseases, and knowing its composition, we are thoroughly satisfied that it contains chemical properties which neutralize and destroy the miasmatic or ague poison which is in the system, and, at the same time, produces a rapid excretion of the neutralized poisons.
The walls are covered with excreta chemically similar to the pile excretions, which forms a mastic to reinforce the tunnel against .
These faculties impart tone to the system, sustain the processes of nutrition, circulation, assimilation, secretion and excretion, and their distinguishing characteristics are vigor, tension, and elasticity.
Nothing should deter one from giving to this excretion the attention it deserves.
Nutritious diet, frequent alkaline baths to keep the skin in good condition and favor excretion through its pores, and a general hygienic regulation of the daily habits, are of the greatest importance.
It is also powerful in eliminating those morbid humors which are afterwards subjected to excretion through various organs.
It is a matter of surprise that physicians generally pay so little attention to the urine when dyspepsia is suspected, since all admit that an examination of that excretion furnishes unmistakable evidence of the nature and complications of the disease.
Although the microscope is of inestimable value in examining the renal excretion, it does not entirely supersede other valuable instruments and chemical re-agents in determining constitutional changes.
Absorption, assimilation, excretion, and also reproduction are performed by all classes of cells.
Define absorption, excretion, and assimilation as applied to the cells.
These compounds are carried by the blood to the organs of excretion, where they are removed from the body.
They must take it in excess of their needs, regardless of the effect, at least until the organs of excretion can throw off the surplus as waste.
While in theory excretion may be regarded as a distinct physiological act, it is, in fact, leaving out the work of the lungs, but a phase of the work of glands.
While the chief work of the liver is perhaps not that of excretion, its functions may here be summarized.