Capillary

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: cap=il=lar=y

CIDE DICTIONARY

Capillary, a. [L. capillaris, fr. capillus hair. Cf. Capillaire.].

•  Resembling a hair; fine; minute; very slender; having minute tubes or interspaces; having very small bore; as, the capillary vessels of animals and plants.  [1913 Webster]
•  Pertaining to capillary tubes or vessels; as, capillary action.  [1913 Webster]

Capillary 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.

Capillary, n. 

•  A tube or vessel, extremely fine or minute.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Capillary, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 of or like a hair.
2 (of a tube) of hairlike internal diameter.
3 of one of the delicate ramified blood vessels intervening between arteries and veins.
--n. (pl. -ies)
1 a capillary tube.
2 a capillary blood vessel.

Idiom

capillary action = CAPILLARITY.

Etymology

L capillaris f. capillus hair

THESAURUS

Capillary

aorta, arterial, arteriole, artery, blood vessel, bristlelike, carotid, cirrose, cirrous, fibered, fibroid, fibrous, flagelliform, flossy, funicular, gossamery, hairlike, hairy, jugular vein, ligamental, portal vein, pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, ropy, silky, stringy, taeniate, taeniform, threadlike, thready, vascular, vein, veinlet, veinous, vena cava, venation, venose, venous, venule, vesicular, wiry

ROGET THESAURUS

Capillary

Filament

N filament, line, fiber, fibril, funicle, vein, hair, capillament, cilium, cilia, pilus, pili, tendril, gossamer, hair stroke, veinlet, venula, venule, wire, string, thread, packthread, cotton, sewing silk, twine, twist, whipcord, tape, ribbon, cord, rope, yarn, hemp, oakum, jute, strip, shred, slip, spill, list, band, fillet, fascia, ribbon, riband, roll, lath, splinter, shiver, shaving, beard, ramification, strand, filamentous, filamentiferous, filaceous, filiform, fibrous, fibrillous, thread-like, wiry, stringy, ropy, capillary, capilliform, funicular, wire-drawn, anguilliform, flagelliform, hairy, taeniate, taeniform, taenioid, venose, venous.