digestive gland

noun

1. any gland having ducts that pour secretions into the digestive tract, as the salivary glands, liver, and pancreas.

Word History and Origins

Origin of digestive gland¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Researchers generated three-dimensional images of miniature brain regions, digestive glands, a primitive circulatory system and even traces of the nerves supplying the larva’s simple legs and eyes.

From BBC

The parasite infects connective tissue and produces spores inside digestive glands, eventually killing the bivalves.

From Science Magazine

But the presence of both a crop and digestive glands, Hopkins and colleagues write, means that the evolution of trilobite innards was more complex than previously supposed. 

From Scientific American

Do you eat the crab “mustard” or do you toss the pale-yellow digestive gland?

From Washington Post

Well technically, it’s the tomalley—a digestive gland that’s the intestine, liver, and pancreas.

From Time