In some cases secrete means to put away, hide or conceal. I'm sometimes the secretor of seeds when visiting gardens (please keep my secretory secret!)Secrete can also mean to produce something – a secretion. Our eyes may secrete tears (I'm not absolutely sure it is our eyes that do this, in fact I'm fairly sure it's a separate gland or duct or something, but the only alternative I could come up with was a festering wound secreting pus and frankly that's way too icky.)
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6 comments:
Hi Patsy - yes secrete is an interesting word ... sadly no first novel here ... cheers and enjoy your outings and secreting of seeds ... cheers Hilary
Put away or produce - such opposite meanings.
Sometimes we know both meanings of a word but fail to consider the relationship between them. Thank you for pointing it out.
I agree with Alex. So interesting the opposing meanings of this word.
Yes, it does have opposing meanings, but my first instinct when I saw the word was to picture suppurating wounds. Ick! :)
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
@ Hilary – will do!
@ Alex - there's a word for words which do this, but I've forgotten it!
@ Miriam – I suppose that's because when we see words in context we understand the meaning and so don't look for alternatives.
@ Natalie – It's intriguing, isn't it?
@ Susan – Sorry for conjuring that image.
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