| 释义 |
capillary, a. and n.|ˈkæpɪlərɪ, kəˈpɪlərɪ|
[f. L. capillāris: see capillar and -ary2.]
A. adj.
1. Of, pertaining to, consisting of, or concerned with hair.
1656Blount Glossogr., Capillary, of or like hair. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxvi. (1856) 326 Another, remarkable for a dirty person, of well used-up capillary surface. 1863Possibilities of Creat. 182 [A whisker] shooting its capillary herbage in a curving direction across the cheek. 1885Truth 11 June 932/1 It is as good for the dentists as for the capillary artists.
2. Hair-like; resembling a hair in tenuity.
1664Power Exp. Philos. 1. 37 All diaper'd or branched over with pure white capillary little veins. 1704Swift Mech. Operat. Spirit Misc. (1711) 294 Certain capillary Nerves. 1742H. Baker Microsc. ii. v. 86 This Dunghill-Water abounds..with a sort of capillary Eels, that are extreamly active. 1811Pinkerton Petral. I. 261 Capillary virgin silver. 1872Oliver 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 capillary vessel.
1664Power Exp. Philos. ii. 142 Take a small Capillary Glass-pipe, or Tube, open at both ends. 1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 297 Rain-water..meeting with capillary veins (as I may call them) or small pores [in the rocks]. 1742H. Baker Microsc. ii. x. 132 The Blood..in the minute Capillary Veins and Arteries. 1819Playfair 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. 1871B. Stewart Heat §16 A tube of glass..which has a capillary bore.
4. a. 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. 1831Brewster Optics iv. 30 A drop of the fluid..will be retained by the force of capillary attraction. 1836Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 77/2 The capillary system..becomes infinitely less extended.
b. (See quot. 1962.)
1895F. H. King Soil v. 176 The slower rise of capillary water in a dry soil. 1929Weaver & Clements Plant Ecol. ix. 182 The water-retaining capacity..includes the hygroscopic water as well as the much larger quantity that the soil holds besides, commonly called capillary water. 1932Fuller & Conard tr. Braun-Blanquet's Plant Sociol. vii. 212 The capillary water of the soil forms a thin, coherent water film around each solid particle. 1962Hanson Dict. Ecol. 66 Capillary water, the portion of soil water which is held by cohesion as a continuous film around particles and in spaces; most of it is available to plants.
†5. See quots. Obs. (Cf. B. 3.)
c1720Quincy (J.), Capillary, or capillaceous plants, are such as have no main stalk or stem, but grow to the ground, as hairs on the head; and which bear their seeds in little tufts or protuberances on the backside of their leaves. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Capillary plants amount to much the same with what are denominated acaulose plants.
B. n.
†1. Anything resembling a hair or collection of hairs. Obs.
1697Evelyn 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.
1667Phil. Trans. II. 511 The capillary's of the Arteries, and Veins. 1744Berkeley Siris §56 Mercury..may justly be suspected of hurting the fine capillaries. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Phil. II. xxi. 420 Secreted by the fine capilaries..in the bodies of plants and animals. 1873Mivart Elem. Anat. x. 406 Minute tubes, capillaries, which convey the blood to the tissues.
†3. Bot.
a. 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.
[1578Lyte Dodoens iii. lxviii. 409 Apuleius calleth it Capillus Veneris, Capillaris, and Crinita.] 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 351 Some kinde of the capillaries, which are very small plants and only grow upon wals and stony places. 1692Ray Disc. ii. iv. (1732) 191 The leaves of Ferns and other Capillaries. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., The ancients thought that the capillaries were all without seed.
†b. Any stemless or acaulous plant. Obs.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 217 All Fibrous Plants..Also the Capillaries; Matricaria, Violets, Primroses, etc. may now be transplanted. 1675― Terra (1729) 45 Violets, Auricula, Primroses, and other Capillaries planted in Beds, or Bordures.
Hence † caˈpillariness = capillarity; † capiˈllarious a. = capillary; also capiˈllarian a. nonce-wd.
1775Ash, Capillariness, the state of being capillary. [Also in mod. Dicts.] 1750G. Hughes Barbados 252 Its..capillarious, fringy branches are divided into..smaller ones. 1825Lamb in Life & Lett. xv. (Wks. 1865) 443, I call all good Christians the Church, Capillarians and all. |