/kap"euh ler'ee/ , adj., n., pl. capillaries .
adj.
1. pertaining to or occurring in or as if in a tube of fine bore.
2. resembling a strand of hair; hairlike.
3. Physics.
a. pertaining to capillarity.
b. of or pertaining to the apparent attraction or repulsion between a liquid and a solid, observed in capillarity.
4. Anat. pertaining to a capillary or capillaries.
n.
5. Anat. one of the minute blood vessels between the terminations of the arteries and the beginnings of the veins.
6. Also called capillary tube . a tube with a small bore.
[ 1570-80; capill ( ar ) (obs., capillaris pertaining to hair, equiv. to capill ( us ) hair + -aris -AR 1 ) + -ARY ]