[f. VEIN sb. Cf. VEINULET.] A small or minor vein (in various senses).
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iii. Here, too, is a vein or veinlet of the grand World-circulation of Waters.
1855. Emerson, Misc., viii. 63. He no longer fills the veins and veinlets.
1872. Huxley, Physiol., v. 120. The blood of the capillaries of the lobule is poured into that vein by a minute veinlet.
b. spec. in Bot. A branch or subdivision of a vein or venule.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 91. The area of parenchyma, lying between two or more veins or veinlets.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 141. There are also other veins of less extent given off by the midrib, and these give origin to small veinlets.
1857. T. Moore, Handbk. Brit. Ferns (ed. 3), 8. The branches of the veins are venules, and the branches of the venules are veinlets.
1877. Heath, Fern World, 215. Along on each side of the mid veins of the lobes are alternate veinlets.