Capillary

a. and sb. [f. L. capillāris: see CAPILLAR and -ARY².]

  A.  adj. 1. Of, pertaining to, consisting of, or concerned with hair.

1656.  Blount, Glossogr., Capillary, of or like hair.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxvi. (1854), 326. Another, remarkable for a dirty person, of well used-up capillary surface.

1863.  Possibil. of Creation, 182. [A whisker] shooting its capillary herbage in a curving direction across the cheek.

1885.  Truth, 11 June, 932/1. It is as good for the dentists as for the capillary artists.

  2.  Hair-like; resembling a hair in tenuity.

1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., I. 37. All diaper’d or branched over with pure white Capillary little veins.

1704.  Swift, Mech. Operat. Spirit, Misc. (1711), 294. Certain capillary Nerves.

1742.  H. Baker, Microsc., II. v. 86. This Dunghill-Water abounds … with a sort of capillary Eels, that are extreamly active.

1811.  Pinkerton, Petral., I. 261. Capillary virgin silver.

1869.  Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 182. Lesser Helosciad, submerged leaves, with capillary segments.

  3.  Having a very minute or hair-like internal diameter; as a capillary tube or vessel.

1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., II. 142. Take a small Capillary Glass-pipe, or Tube, open at both ends.

1669.  W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 297. Rain-water … meeting with capillary veins (as I may call them) or small pores [in the rocks].

1742.  H. Baker, Microsc., II. x. 132. The Blood … in the minute Capillary Veins and Arteries.

1819.  Playfair, Nat. Phil., I. 191. The reason why the water between the two narrow plates of glass rises only to half the height it does in a capillary tube.

1871.  B. Stewart, Heat, § 16. A tube of glass … which has a capillary bore.

  4.  Of, pertaining to, or taking place in, capillary vessels or capillaries. For Capillary Attraction, Repulsion, see those words.

1809.  (title) An Examination of M. La Place’s Theory of Capillary Action.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, iv. 30. A drop of the fluid … will be retained by the force of capillary attraction.

1836.  Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 77/2. The capillary system becomes infinitely less extended.

  † 5.  See quots. Obs. (Cf. B. 3.)

1722.  Quincy, Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2), 59 (J.). Capillary, or Capillacious Plants, are such as have no main Stalk or Stem, but grow to the Ground, as Hairs on the Head; and which bear their Seed in little Tufts or Protuberances on the Back-side of their Leaves.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Capillary plants amount to much the same with what are denominated acaulose plants.

  B.  sb.

  † 1.  Anything resembling a hair or collection of hairs. Obs.

1697.  Evelyn, Numism., vi. 214. As it were Capillaries, hairy Lines and tender Rays.

  2.  A capillary vessel. Cf. A. 3. esp. One of a number of extremely minute blood-vessels, in which the arterial circulation ends, and the venous begins.

1667.  Phil. Trans., II. 511. The capillary’s of the Arteries, and Veins.

1744.  Berkeley, Siris, § 56. Mercury … may justly be suspected of hurting the fine capillaries.

1794.  G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Phil., II. xxi. 420. Secreted by the fine capilaries … in the bodies of plants and animals.

1873.  Mivart, Elem. Anat., x. 406. Minute tubes (capillaries) which convey the blood to the tissues.

  † 3.  Bot. A name given apparently at first to the Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum capillus Veneris (in ancient Lat. Capillus Veneris and herba capillaris), and thence to other ferns or allied plants.

[1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, III. lxviii. 409. Apuleius calleth it Capillus Veneris, Capillaris, and Crinita.]

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 351. Some kinde of the capillaries, which are very small plants and only grow upon wals and stony places.

1692.  Ray, Disc., II. iv. (1732), 191. The leaves of Ferns and other Capillaries.

1751.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The ancients thought that the capillaries were all without seed.

  † b.  Any stemless or acaulous plant. Obs.

1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 217. All Fibrous Plants…. Also the Capillaries; Matricaria, Violets, Primroses, &c. may now be transplanted. Ibid. (1675), Terra (1729), 45. Violets, Auricula’s, Primroses, and other Capillaries, planted in Beds or Bordures.

  Hence † Capillariness = CAPILLARITY; † Capillarious a. = CAPILLARY; also Capillarian a. nonce-wd.

1775.  Ash, Capillariness, the state of being capillary. [Also in mod. Dicts.]

1750.  G. Hughes, Barbados, 252. Its … capillarious, fringy branches are divided into … smaller ones.

1825.  Lamb, in Life & Lett., xv. (Wks. 1865), 443. I call all good Christians the Church, Capillarians and all.