Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Circulatory \Cir"cu*la*to*ry\, a. [L. circulatorius pert. to a mountebank: cf. F. circulatoire.]
Circular; as, a circulatory letter.
--Johnson.Circulating, or going round.
--T. Warton.(Anat.) Subserving the purposes of circulation; as, circulatory organs; of or pertaining to the organs of circulation; as, circulatory diseases.
Circulatory \Cir"cu*la*to*ry\, n. A chemical vessel consisting of two portions unequally exposed to the heat of the fire, and with connecting pipes or passages, through which the fluid rises from the overheated portion, and descends from the relatively colder, maintaining a circulation.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, of blood, from French circulatoire or directly from Latin circulatorius, from circulator, agent noun from circulare (see circulate). Circulatory system is recorded from 1862.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Of or pertaining to a circulation, especially to the circulatory system. 2 circular; going round. n. (context chemistry English) A vessel with two portions unequally exposed to heat, and with connecting pipes or passages, through which the fluid rises from the overheated portion, and descends from the relatively colder, maintaining a circulation.
WordNet
adj. of or relating to circulation [syn: circulative]
relating to circulatory system or to circulation of the blood
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "circulatory".
Our abstract on fixing the vena cava during circulatory arrest was accepted.
The equipment consists of a series of valves and chambers that effectively link the esophageal tube to the innominate artery and thus the circulatory system.
The bloodlettings, the vomits and the purges were intended to rid the viscera and the circulatory system of peccant humors, and at the same time to relieve the pressure of the animal spirits upon the brain.
I have to take a dozen different drugs to prevent reabsorption of calcium from my bone, collapse of my circulatory system, fluid retention, all the bad stuff micro-gravity does to unedited Earth stock.
The products resulting from the waste of the tissues are constantly being poured into the blood, and, as we have seen, the blood being everywhere full of corpuscles, which, like all living things, die and decay, the products of their decomposition accumulate in every part of the circulatory system.
Most amputees feel that anything substantially interfering with this mass circulatory system will be disastrous.
It could involve violent constriction of the bronchioles, heart failure, collapse of the circulatory system, death.
The first group of dogs seemed to act normally after they were subjected to the hypotension followed by a short period of circulatory arrest, but they would need to be accurately tested to determine if there was any significant change in their intelligence.
Out of red blood, blood-vessels are formed, and from the incipient development of the heart follow faint lines of arteries, and the engineers of nutrition survey a circulatory system, perfecting the vascular connections by supplementing the arteries with a complete net-work of veins and capillaries.
It seemed as if the skin had been flayed from its body: the flesh was completely naked and a reticulum of yellow circulatory channels was visible on or just below the surface.
All the lymph is collected into the largest lymphatic of all, the thoracic duct, which leads into the subclavian vein in the upper chest and is thus restored to the main circulatory system.
The technique was called hypothermic circulatory arrest and was rarely used.
Doubtless our best thoughts are deeply tinged by the healthful or diseased conditions of such organs as the stomach, the lungs, the heart, or even the muscular or circulatory systems, and these impressions, when carried to the sensorium, are reflected by the thoughts, for reflex action is the third class of functions, assigned to the cerebrum.
He thought, looking at the tissue slides, that Vine died of a circulatory collapse-maybe brought on by septicemia.
Phil told me that the slides were suggestive of a circulatory collapse and not a sudden cardiac death.