[(? a. Fr. excrétion) ad. L. excrētiōn-em, n. of action f. excērnĕre to sift out, separate: see EXCRETE.]
The action or process of excreting.
1. Separation of animal products (chiefly, those useless for nutrition) from the blood.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 148. Excretion, or separating in bodies of superfluities and excrements.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 115. The constant separation and excretion whereof [Urine] is necessary for the preservation of Life.
1731. Arbuthnot, Aliments, 14. The common Symptoms of the Excretion of the Bile being vitiated, are a yellowish Colour of the Skin … a loss of Appetite, [etc.].
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat., V. 488/2. Calcareous integument formed by excretion.
b. An analogous process in plants.
1862. Darwin, Fertil. Orchids, vi. 278. The secretion acts also … as an excretion. Ibid. (1876), Cross-Fertil., x. 403. The excretion [of a sweet fluid] manifestly depends on changes in the sap.
c. Of the teeth: The (supposed) formation of the teeth by matter ‘excreted’ from the pulp. Hence attrib. in excretion-theory.
1812. Cuvier, Les Ossemens Fossiles, Elephans, 65. Les substances dont se composent les dents se forment toutes par excrétion et par couches. transl. (ed. 4, 1835), 198. Formed by excretion and by layers.
1839. Nasmyth, Research. Teeth, 28. He [Cuvier] holds that the different substances which constitute the teeth are formed by excretion and in layers.
1854. Owen, Skel. & Teeth (1855), 292. The ‘excretion theory’ of dental development.
2. The action of casting out of the body that which has been separated by any of the organs; esp. evacuation of the bowels.
1640. Erotomania, 51. Excretion, or Retention.
1645. Milton, Tetrach. (1851), 170. The fleshly act … beeing at best but an animal excretion.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 1122. Children are continually provoked to excretion.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 274. What stimulates and promotes the Excretion of the Blood.
1865. Englishman’s Mag., Oct., 297. A common central aperture, through which the functions of secretion and excretion are carried on.
3. concr. That which is separated and ejected from the body.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentl. (1641), 59–60. None held it then a grace to have … The very excretions [printed excrements] of Beasts to sent them.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Tracts (1684), 113. In Hawks and Cormorants I have sometimes observed bloody excretions.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xix. (1803), 366. The aptness of this excretion [slime] to the purpose.
1842. Abdy, Water Cure (1843), 21. A slight yellow excretion, by which morbific matter is eliminated.
1872. Huxley, Physiol., i. 3. These products which are thrown out of the body and are called excretions.
