silk gland noun Date: 1870 a gland that produces a viscid fluid which is extruded in filaments and hardens into silk on exposure to air: as, either of a pair of greatly enlarged and modified salivary glands of an insect larva that produce a compound filament from which a larval or pupal cover (as a cocoon) is spun, any of two or more abdominal glands of a spider that open through spinnerets and produce a filament used chiefly in the spinning of webs
