1. A small globular body: One example of a glomus is the carotid body.
2. A highly organized arteriolovenular anastomosis (a vessel that directly interconnects an artery and a vein) forming a tiny nodular focus in the nailbed, pads of the fingers and toes, ears, hands, and feet and many other organs of the body: The afferent arteriole enters the connective tissue capsule of the glomus, becomes devoid of an internal elastic membrane, and develops a relatively thick epithelioid muscular wall and small lumen. The anastomosis may be branched and convoluted, richly innervated with sympathetic and myelinated nerves, and connected with a short, thin-walled vein that drains into a periglomic vein and then into one of the veins of the skin.

The glomus functions as a shunt or bypass-regulating mechanism in the flow of blood, temperature, and conservation of heat in the part as well as in the indirect control of the blood pressure and other functions of the circulatory system.