gluten

plural glutens

1. countableobsoleteuncountableFibrin (formerly considered as one of the "animal humours").First known use 16th–19th c.

   The Radicall or innate, is dayly ſupplied by nouriſhment, which ſome call Cambium, and make thoſe ſecundary Humors of Ros and Gluten to maintaine it: […]

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Division of the Body. Humors, Spirits.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 1, member 2, subsection 2, page 20

2. countablerareuncountableAny gluey, sticky substance.First known use 17th c.

   [H]is nose is running in bubbly gluten over his lips onto his chin […].

   1975, Larry Woiwode, Beyond the Bedroom Wall, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 188

   2 more examples

   [T]he Fly suspends it self very firmly and easily, without the access or need of any such Sponges fill'd with an imaginary gluten, as many have, for want of good Glasses, perhaps, or a troublesome and diligent examination, suppos'd.

   1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, XXXVII

   The tyrant machine is the female body, grinding and milling the pulp of matter, the gluten of human flesh.

   1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae

3. countableuncountablebiochemistryThe major protein in cereal grains, especially wheat; responsible for the elasticity in dough and the structure in baked bread.First known use 19th c.

   Unfortunately, wholemeal bread is, according to many experts, a tricky thing to get right, as the lower gluten content of the flour makes for dense results […]

   2010 June 10, Felicity Cloake, “Word of Mouth Blog”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020

   1 more example

   Chew on a small piece of dough, and it becomes more compact but persists as a gum-like, elastic mass, the residue that the Chinese named “the muscle of flour” and that we call gluten. It consists mainly of protein, and includes what may well be the largest protein molecules to be found in the natural world.

   2004, Harold McGee, chapter 10, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, →ISBN

4. countableuncountablegeographyA gluey, sticky mass of clay, bitumen etc.First known use 19th c.

   Despite constant rain that turned roads to gluten, the Yankees kept moving.

   1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, page 669