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capillary action


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Also see: action

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
cap•il•lar•y /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/USA pronunciation   n., pl. -ies, adj. 
n. [countable]
  1. Anatomyone of the tiny, hairlike blood vessels between the arteries and the veins.

adj. [before a noun]
  1. Physicsof or relating to the attraction or the pushing away between a liquid and a solid:Capillary action causes oil to rise in the wick of a lantern.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
cap•il•lar•y  (kap′ə ler′ē),USA pronunciation adj., n., pl. -lar•ies. 
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
    • pertaining to capillarity.
    • of or pertaining to the apparent attraction or repulsion between a liquid and a solid, observed in capillarity.
  4. Anatomypertaining to a capillary or capillaries.

n. 
  1. Anatomyone of the minute blood vessels between the terminations of the arteries and the beginnings of the veins.
  2. PhysicsAlso called cap′illary tube′. a tube with a small bore.
  • Latin capillāris pertaining to hair, equivalent. to capill(us) hair + -āris -ar1) + -ary
  • capill(ar) (obsolete, 1570–80

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
capillary / kəˈpɪlərɪ/
  1. resembling a hair; slender
  2. (of tubes) having a fine bore
  3. of or relating to any of the delicate thin-walled blood vessels that form an interconnecting network between the arterioles and the venules
  4. of or relating to capillarity
 ( -laries)
  1. any of the capillary blood vessels
  2. a fine hole or narrow passage in any substance
Etymology: 17th Century: from Latin capillāris, from capillus hair
'capillary action' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
capillarity - wick

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