a. [f. as prec. + -ARY.] Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a filament or filaments.
1841. [see FILAMENT 1].
1858. T. R. Jones, Aquarian Nat., 277. Its [Sabella alveolaria’s] head, or anterior part, is provided with numerous filamentary tentacula (about eighty in number).
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxx. 406–7. They should change the expressions which refer the differential motion to a ‘drag’ towards the centre, and the structure to the sliding of ‘filaments’ past each other in consequence of this drag. Such filamentary sliding may take place in a truly viscous body, but it does not take place in ice.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, vi. (1880), 197. Along their [May flies’] sides are a series of small filamentary appendages, serving as fins, and by the aid of which the creature is supposed to breathe under water.
1875. Blake, Zool., 322. In the higher organised Entozoa a filamentary nervous system has been recognised, complicated with a ganglion near the mouth.
