Wiktionary
n. (context anatomy English) An exocrine gland found under the skin in mammals for regulating body temperature.
WordNet
n. any of the glands in the skin that secrete perspiration [syn: sudoriferous gland]
Wikipedia
Sweat glands, also known as sudoriferous or sudoriparous glands, , are small tubular structures of the skin that produce sweat. Sweat glands are a type of exocrine gland, which are glands that produce and secrete substances onto an epithelial surface by way of a duct. There are two main types of sweat glands that differ in their structure, function, secretory product, mechanism of excretion, anatomic distribution, and distribution across species:
- Eccrine sweat glands are distributed almost all over the human body, in varying densities. Its water-based secretion represents a primary form of cooling in humans.
- Apocrine sweat glands are mostly limited to the axilla (armpits) and perianal areas in humans. They are not significant for cooling in humans, but are the sole effective sweat glands in hoofed animals, such as the camels, donkeys, horses, and cattle.
Ceruminous glands (which produce ear wax), mammary glands (which produce milk), and ciliary glands in the eyelids are modified apocrine sweat glands.
Usage examples of "sweat gland".
He indeed was visited by dreams in which he had shrunk to submicroscopic size and entered a brain, strolling in through some forehead's pore and into the cul-de-sac of a sweat gland.
Mulch could feel every sweat gland on his body pop into instant overdrive.