Definitions

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

  • noun The act or process of discharging waste matter from the blood, tissues, or organs.
  • noun The matter, such as urine or sweat, that is so excreted.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of excreting.
  • noun The substance excreted, as sweat or urine, or certain juices in plants.
  • noun Synonyms Excretion, Secretion. Secretion is the more general word, and includes excretion. The latter is restricted to the elimination of useless or harmful substances from the body. Thus, the secretion of saliva or of milk would not be called excretion; but the latter term would be applied to the secretion of the urine. Both terms are applied to the products as well as to the functions.

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

  • noun The act of excreting.
  • noun That which is excreted; excrement.

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

  • noun The process of removing or ejecting material that has no further utility, especially from the body; the act of excreting.
  • noun Something being excreted in that manner.

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

  • noun waste matter (as urine or sweat but especially feces) discharged from the body
  • noun the bodily process of discharging waste matter

Etymologies

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