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Webster 1828 Edition

Phlem

PHLEM

,

Noun.

[Gr. inflammation; and pituitous matter, to burn; hence the word must have originally expressed the matter formed by suppuration.]

1.

Cold animal fluid; water matter; one of the four humors of which the ancients supposed the blood to be composed.

2.

In common usage, bronchial mucus; the thick viscid matter secreted in the throat.

3.

Among chimists, water, or the water of distillation.

4.

Dullness; coldness; sluggishness; indifference.