mucus
a viscous, slimy mixture of mucins, water, electrolytes, epithelial cells, and leukocytes that is secreted by glands lining the nasal, esophageal, and other body cavities and serves primarily to protect and lubricate surfaces.
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Origin of mucus
1Words that may be confused with mucus
- mucous, mucus
Words Nearby mucus
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use mucus in a sentence
Those tears are mixtures of water, mucus, salt, proteins and fats.
By keeping your head above your neck and chest, but still in line with your spine, you can also relieve cold symptoms associated with mucus build-up or sinus pressure.
Researchers, including Max Teplitski, a scientist at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and his colleagues find that coral mucus seems to attract and cultivate a particular community of microbes.
When Evolution Is Infectious - Issue 90: Something Green | Moises Velasquez-Manoff | September 30, 2020 | NautilusA drone already exists, for example, that can collect mucus from a whale and feasibly detect viruses like the coronavirus.
Everything we know—and don’t know—about human-to-animal COVID transmission | jakemeth | September 4, 2020 | FortuneIt detects water flows inside the mucus clouds and lets researchers figure out the palace’s inner 3-D structure.
Larvaceans’ underwater ‘snot palaces’ boast elaborate plumbing | Susan Milius | June 15, 2020 | Science News
It would be similar to smoking, only less…and you might get a chronic cough, or raise a little [mucus].
E-Cigarettes: The Side Effects Nobody Talks About | DailyBurn | September 25, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTPlummer found the film so saccharine that he even developed a nickname for it: “The Sound of mucus.”
Jim Carrey’s Rant Against ‘Kick-Ass 2’ and 13 Other Stars Who Hate Their Own Films | Marlow Stern | June 25, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThe announcer said brightly, “She is completely effaced right now, and she just lost her mucus plug.”
It is thinner than that of chronic bronchitis, and upon standing separates into three layers of pus, mucus, and frothy serum.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Toddmucus is recognized from its characteristic slimy appearance when the fluid is poured from one vessel into another.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddStools composed almost wholly of mucus and streaked with blood are the rule in dysentery, ileocolitis, and intussusception.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddWhen the mucus is small in amount and intimately mixed with the stool, the trouble is probably in the small intestine.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddA sufficient amount of mucus or fecal matter will usually be brought away by it.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
British Dictionary definitions for mucus
/ (ˈmjuːkəs) /
the slimy protective secretion of the mucous membranes, consisting mainly of mucin
Origin of mucus
1mucus
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for mucus
[ myōō′kəs ]
The slimy, viscous substance secreted as a protective lubricant by mucous membranes. Mucus is composed chiefly of large glycoproteins called mucins and inorganic salts suspended in water.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for mucus
A slippery and somewhat sticky fluid secreted by the glands in mucous membranes. Mucus lubricates and protects the mucous membranes.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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