Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Capillary
Cap′il-la-ry
(kăp′ĭl-lā̍-ry̆ or kȧ-pĭl′lȧ-ry̆; 277)
, Adj.
1.
Resembling a hair; fine; minute; very slender; having minute tubes or interspaces; having very small bore;
as, the
. capillary
vessels of animals and plants2.
Pertaining to capillary tubes or vessels;
as,
. capillary
actionCapillary attraction
, Capillary repulsion
the apparent attraction or repulsion between a solid and liquid caused by capillarity. See
– Capillarity
, and Attraction
. Capillarity tubes
. See the
Note
under Capillarity
.1.
A tube or vessel, extremely fine or minute.
2.
(Anat.)
A minute, thin-walled vessel; particularly one of the smallest blood vessels connecting arteries and veins, but used also for the smallest lymphatic and biliary vessels.
Webster 1828 Edition
Capillary
CAPILLARY
,Adj.
1.
Resembling a hair, fine, minute, small in diameter, though long; as a capillary tube or pipe; a capillary vessel in animal bodies, such as the ramifications of the blood vessels.2.
In botany, capillary plants are hair-shaped, as the ferns; a term used by Ray, Boerhaave and Morison. This class of plants corresponds to the order of Filices, in the Sexual method, which bear their flower and fruit on the back of the leaf or stalk.This term is applied also to leaves which are longer than the setaceous or bristle-shaped leaf, to glands resembling hairs, to the filaments, to the style, and to the pappus or down affixed to some seeds.
CAPILLARY
,Noun.