Definition of "lectin" [lectin]

• Any of several plant proteins that bind to specific carbohydrate groups on proteins or on cell membranes and are used in the laboratory to isolate glycoproteins, to stimulate proliferation of lymphocytes, and to agglutinate red blood cells. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The research published in January's Molecular Immunology, demonstrates that the introduction of the astrovirus shell also shuts down a second major trigger, dubbed the lectin pathway."
• "I looks them over sometime for to see if I didn't do sumpin 'for deir figures, in s'lectin' and marryin 'Martha, dat's more important to them than de land I'll leave them when I die."
• "Kanoy County sence they stopped 'lectin' country fellers fer sheriff."