Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small slender fiber or filament.
  • noun Anatomy A threadlike fiber or filament, such as a myofibril or neurofibril, that is a constituent of a cell or larger structure.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In histology, a delicate fiber, such as, according to one theory, is found in the protoplasm of cells.
  • noun A small fiber; a fibrilla; a filament.
  • noun Specifically In botany: One of the delicate cottony hairs or thread-like growths found upon the young rootlets of some plants.
  • noun A rootlet of a lichen.
  • noun One of the filaments which line the utricles of Sphagnum.
  • noun The stipe of some fungi: in this sense disused.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small fiber; the branch of a fiber; a very slender thread; a fibrilla.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fine fibre or filament
  • noun biology Any fine, filamentous structure in animals or plants

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a very slender natural or synthetic fiber

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin fibrilla, diminutive of Latin fibra, fiber.]

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Examples

  • Figure 6A-B), but at a higher resolution it was possible to clearly identify that the process of 'fibril' developing into a mature fibril assembly had been affected by the ligand, when compared to α-syn alone (

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Diane Latawiec et al. 2010

  • They connect and feel their world in a very real way for they have within their hair fibril strands that can connect to, in a physical way, a few other species and the mother tree/goddess itself.

    Movie Review: Avatar and a Comparison I « Colleen Anderson 2010

  • Or suppose the big question this season is whether the Pistons, with the new titanium fibril implants in their quads, will beat the Spurs, with their prosthetic forearm extenders.

    Should Science Make Us Better Than Well? | Impact Lab 2005

  • In two pieces, specks, or rather paillettes, of gold were found lightly and loosely adhering to the “Marú;” so lightly, indeed, that they fell off when carelessly pocketed Veins of schist still remained, but in the galleries they had been followed out to the uttermost fibril.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • The soles were dipped in special stimulating fluid, returned precisely into place, with accuracy sufficient to bring cell wall opposite cell wall, severed artery tight to severed artery, nerve fibril against nerve fibril.

    The Languages of Pao Vance, Jack, 1916- 1958

  • By means of the microscope, we find that these fibers are made up of minute filaments (_fibrils_), and that each fibril is composed of a row of small cells arranged like a string of beads.

    Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics Joel Dorman Steele

  • As it is pulled off it is noticed that there are numerous fibril-like processes hanging to its inner surface, and which draw out from the substance of the bone.

    Diseases of the Horse's Foot Harry Caulton Reeks

  • As the second incision was made, I felt a strange lightning of pain play through the limb, defining every minutest fibril of nerve.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 105, July 1866 Various

  • And the sun coming in through the narrowest fibril of a slit in his eyes.

    The Apostolic Beasts 1921

  • Then why this fibril anxiety never to be long beyond call?

    Out of the Ashes Ethel Watts Mumford 1909

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