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• secrete
  secrete

  verb (used with object)

  to discharge, generate, or release by the process of secretion.
• secrète
  secrète

  noun

  a steel skullcap of the 17th century, worn under a soft hat.

secrete

¹ American  

[si-kreet] / sɪˈkrit /

verb (used with object)

secreted, secreting

1. to discharge, generate, or release by the process of secretion.

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secrete ² American  

[si-kreet] / sɪˈkrit /

verb (used with object)

secreted, secreting

1. to place out of sight; hide; conceal.

   squirrels secreting nuts in a hollow tree trunk.

   Synonyms:

   disguise, shroud, cover

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secrète ³ American  

[suh-kret] / səˈkrɛt /

noun

Armor.

1. a steel skullcap of the 17th century, worn under a soft hat.

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secrete ¹ British  

/ sɪˈkriːt /

verb

1. (of a cell, organ, etc) to synthesize and release (a secretion)

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secrete ² British  

/ sɪˈkriːt /

verb

1. (tr) to put in a hiding place

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secrete Scientific  

/ sĭ-krēt′ /

1. To produce and discharge a substance, especially from the cells of specialized glands. For example, the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas secrete the hormone insulin.

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Synonym Usage

See hide ¹.

Other Word Forms

• secretor
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of secrete¹

First recorded in 1700–10; back formation from secretion

Origin of secrete²

1735–45; alteration of obsolete secret, verb use of secret

Origin of secrète³

From French; see origin at secret

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Explanation

Secrete is all about secrets. It means both "to hide" and "to release." When you squeeze a lemon, it secretes juice. When you stuff your money in a mattress, you secrete it there. It's easy to remember that secrete's all about secrets when you see the word secret inside secrete. Imagine the first person who squeezed a lemon and secreted the juice. Probably felt like he'd discovered a secret stash of citrus goodness. If he was greedy, maybe he gathered all the lemons he could find and secreted them away in a box so no one else would learn the secret of the juice-secretion.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

secrete secrète secreted secreting

"These findings suggest that IECs secrete some immunoregulatory factors after butyrate treatment, and these factors can act on T-cells."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

Who would have thought serums infused with snail mucin - the sticky substance they secrete - would become a part of skincare routines around the world?

From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2026

These creatures, more commonly known as violet snails, are distinguished by their striking purple shell and the delicate bubble raft they secrete to stay afloat in the open ocean.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2025

Her team pays attention to other stress markers, such as that they secrete mucus when biologically stressed.

From Salon ● May 13, 2025

Maybe: they secrete chemicals the way insects do, or perhaps the movements of their eyestalks is a form of language similar to the dance of a bee.

From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Prieur wrote in her butt-covering memoir Agent secrète, published in 1995.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025

The novel — “La plus secrète mémoire des hommes” in French — was praised nearly universally, with Le Monde calling it “a great book.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2022

We had only one battered paperback copy of “Brown Face, Big Master,” and though the book was secreted away, I found it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

The researchers then narrowed the search to genes that produce proteins secreted outside the cell, a common feature of hormones, and that contained at least four possible cleavage sites.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026

It mimics a hormone secreted alongside insulin that signals fullness and slows gastric emptying.

From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026

Released in 2010, “Tangled” is Disney’s animated take on the fairy tale “Rapunzel,” about a young princess with long blond magical hair who had been unknowingly kidnapped and secreted away in an isolated tower.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026

I counted out three hundred and fifty sheets of corrasable bond from my mother's stock in the hall closet, secreted away under a pile of old felt hats and clothes brushes and woolen scarves.

From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

"Microglia filled up with lipids become hyperinflammatory and start secreting things that are not good for the brain," Holtzman said.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 22, 2023

The researchers isolated vSSCs from people undergoing spinal surgery and found that human vSSCs secreting MFGE8 were more likely to interact with cancer cells than vSSCs that were not secreting the protein.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 14, 2023

He adds that this is the first record of land-dwelling invertebrates producing and secreting this particular neurotoxin.

From National Geographic ● Aug. 4, 2023

The bacteria works by secreting a small molecule, known as harmane, which inhibits the early stages of the malaria parasite growing in the mosquito's gut.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2023

Rowan had to remind himself that this man with the perfect smile, secreting charisma instead of sweat, was the man who had manipulated him and Citra into mortal competition.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

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