Definition of "lacteal"

lacteal

adjective
comparative more lacteal, superlative most lacteal
1. Relating to milk.
2. (anatomy) Relating to milk production.
3. Relating to, or containing, chyle.
noun
plural lacteals
1. (physiology, chiefly in the plural) Each of the lymphatic vessels which convey chyle from the mesentery to the thoracic duct.
  Quotations
  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.