See hide 1.
First recorded in 1700–10; back formation from secretion
1735–45; alteration of obsolete secret, verb use of secret
From French; see origin at secret
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
All cells use EVs to secrete proteins, DNA and other molecules, and tumor cells are particularly active EV secreters.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2024
Bono had, I ascertained, connived to secrete them when we had removed to this house from the town; having no use for them upon his exile, he had left them for me.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
“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
Within a year after moving in, the couple discovered the original house plans that had been secreted away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 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
Due to their strength, they can be secreted in small volumes in parcels.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026
Then a goose came forward and confessed to having secreted six ears of corn during the last year’s harvest and eaten them in the night.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
Beta cells are isolated from a donor pancreas, purified and delivered to the patient's liver, where they can take up residence and begin secreting insulin.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2024
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
