Dictionary entry

Pancreas

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pan″cre‐as (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. �; πα̑σ, πα̑ν, all + κρέασ flesh, meat: cf. F. pancréas.] (Anat.) The sweetbread, a gland connected with the intestine of nearly all vertebrates. It is usually elongated and light-colored, and its secretion, called the pancreatic juice, is discharged, often together with the bile, into the upper part of the intestines, and is a powerful aid in digestion. See Illust. of Digestive apparatus.