noun
- a small or fine fiber or filament.
- Botany. any of the delicate hairs on the young roots of some plants.
- Cell Biology. any threadlike structure or filament.
noun plural -brils or -brillae (-ˈbrɪliː)
- a small fibre or part of a fibre
- biology a threadlike structure, such as a root hair or a thread of muscle tissue
1680s, back-formation from Modern Latin fibrilla, diminutive of Latin fibra (see fiber).
adj.
- Relating to a fibril.
- Relating to the fine rapid contractions or twitchings of fibers or of small groups of fibers in skeletal or cardiac muscle.
n.
- A minute fiber.
- Any of various threadlike fibers or filaments that are constituent parts of a cell or larger structure. Cellulose fibrils are the main component of cell walls in plants. Fibrils make up the contractile part of striated muscle fiber in the body.