# Nipple

The nipple is a raised region of tissue on the surface of the breast from which, in lactating females, milk from the mammary gland leaves the body through the lactiferous ducts to nurse an infant. The milk can flow through the nipple passively, or it can be ejected by smooth muscle contractions that occur along with the ductal system. The nipple is surrounded by the areola, which is often a darker colour than the surrounding skin.
Male mammals also have nipples but without the same level of function or prominence. A nipple is often called a teat when referring to non-humans. "Nipple" or "teat" can also be used to describe the flexible mouthpiece of a baby bottle.
In humans, the nipples of both males and females can be sexually stimulated as part of sexual arousal. In many cultures, female nipples are sexualized, or regarded as sex objects and evaluated in terms of their physical characteristics and sex appeal. Some cultures have little to no sexualization of the nipple, and going topless presents no barrier.

## Quotes

* My brains are going out my nipples.
** Gina Barberi, Radio from Hell (13 January 2006)
* Chris: Why are your nipples poking into me?! Meg: Sorry! That happens when I'm cold. Chris: But why are there three of them?! Meg: There aren't! Two of them are moles. Chris: Those numbers still don't add up!
** "Finders Keepers", Family Guy, season 12, episode 1 (29 September 2013), written by Anthony Blasucci and Mike Desilets
* Oh, yes. Just had me a little nubbin-ectomy. Yep. Two nipples, no waiting.
** "The One with Phoebe's Ex-Partner", Friends, season 3, episode 14 (6 February 1997), written by David Crane, Marta Kauffman, Wil Calhoun
* Frank: I want to see her nipples. Censor Lady: But this is a Christmas show. Frank: Well, I'm sure Charles Dickens would have wanted to see her nipples! Carpenter: You can barely see them nipples. Frank: See? And these guys are really looking!
** Scrooged (1988 film), written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue
* Have ye beheld (with much delight) A red rose peeping through a white? Or else a cherry, double grac’d, Within a lily centre plac’d? Or ever mark’d the pretty beam A strawberry shows half-drown’d in cream? Or seen rich rubies blushing through A pure smooth pearl and orient too? So like to this, nay all the rest, Is each neat niplet of her breast.
** Robert Herrick, "Upon the Nipples of Julia’s Breast", Hesperides (1648)
* Ladies, shut up and hold on to your nipples!
** Varsity Blues (1999 film), written by W. Peter Iliff
* The eyes are the nipples of the face.
** The House Bunny (2008 film), written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith
* And even when we were at my grandmother's funeral when you told most of my relatives that you could see her nipples through her burial dress, I let it slide.
** Mallrats (1995 film), written and directed by Kevin Smith
* Hannibal Lecter: Tell me, Senator: did you nurse Catherine yourself? ... Senator Ruth Martin: Yes, I did. Hannibal Lecter: Toughened your nipples, didn't it?
** The Silence of the Lambs (1991 film), written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1988 novel
* The video has been censored by MTV. They took all nipples out of the cartoon, but they had no problem with the scene in which Boris Yeltsin cuts off his own arms and legs.
** Thom Yorke, about censorship of the music video for "Paranoid Android", as quoted in James Wignall, "Sound and Vision", The Guardian (11 October 2007)
* You're excited? Feel these nipples!
** BASEketball (1998 film), written by David Zucker, Robert LoCash, Jeff Wright
* The nipples of Mother Hope have run dry.
** The Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996), loq. German Patient

## See also

* Body
* Breast
* The Toxic Avenger (1984), has a character named Nipples

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Nipple on Wikipedia