lacteal

Etymology

lacto + -al

adj

1. Relating to milk.
2. (anatomy) Relating to milk production.
   lacteal ducts in the breasts
3. Relating to, or containing, chyle.
   the lacteal vessels

noun

1. (physiology, chiefly in the plural) Each of the lymphatic vessels which convey chyle from the mesentery to the thoracic duct.
   These ‘veins’ must have been the lacteals or chyle-vessels, whose function was explained by Aselli some two thousand years later. 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 65
2. (obsolete) One of the lactiferous ducts or other components of milk-producing organs.