CAPILLARY


Meaning of CAPILLARY in English

I. ˈkapəˌlerē, -ri, Brit usually kəˈpiləri adjective

Etymology: French or Latin; French capillaire, from Latin capillaris, from capillus hair + -aris -ary

1. : belonging or relating to hair

capillary growth

2. : resembling a hair : fine , minute , slender ; especially : having a very small or thin bore usually permitting capillarity

a capillary tube

3. : involving or held by capillary action

capillary water

: resulting from surface tension in the soil

capillary capacity is a measure of the ability of a soil to hold water in the surface layers against the action of gravity

4.

a. : showing or suggesting an arrangement of capillaries

a capillary network

b. : relating to capillarity or to an apparatus employing it

capillary action

II. noun

( -es )

: a minute thin-walled vessel of the body ; especially : any of the smallest constituent vessels of the blood-vascular system connecting arterioles with venules so as to form networks practically throughout the body, averaging 1/2 millimeter in length and at their widest being not many times the diameter of a blood corpuscle, and being walled by a single layer of endothelial cells that permits ready exchange of nutrients and metabolic wastes between the tissues and the circulating blood — see rouget cell

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.