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/veɪl/ Listen

noun

Veil n. (Written also vail)

Something hung up, or spread out, to intercept the view, and hide an object; a cover; a curtain; esp., a screen, usually of gauze, crape, or similar diaphnous material, to hide or protect the face. "The veil of the temple was rent in twain." "She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadornéd golden tresses wore."

A cover; a disguise; a mask; a pretense. "(I will) pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page."

(Bot.)

(a)

The calyptra of mosses.

(b)

A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; called also velum.

(Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing; as, a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil.

(Zool.) Same as Velum, 3.

To take the veil (Eccl.), to receive or be covered with, a veil, as a nun, in token of retirement from the world; to become a nun.

verb

Vail v. t. (Written also vale, and veil)

To let fall; to allow or cause to sink. (Obs.) "Vail your regard Upon a wronged, I would fain have said, a maid!"

To lower, or take off, in token of inferiority, reverence, submission, or the like. "France must vail her lofty-plumed crest!" "Without vailing his bonnet or testifying any reverence for the alleged sanctity of the relic."

Veil v. t. (past & past part. veiled; pres. part. veiling) (Written also vail)

To throw a veil over; to cover with a veil. "Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight, Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined."

Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal. "To keep your great pretenses veiled."

Vail v. i. (Written also vale, and veil) To yield or recede; to give place; to show respect by yielding, uncovering, or the like. (Obs.) "Thy convenience must vail to thy neighbor's necessity."

See images of 'Veil'

Etymology of 'Veil'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Veil" Quotes from Famous Books

... Dalgetty might have argued, tried to veil it from her, tried to trick her once again. But now he was too weary. There was a great surrender in him. "I'll tell you if you wish," he said, "and after that it's in your hands. You can make us ...

— The Sensitive Man • Poul William Anderson

... fiercely resisted the Reformers, and cast them out as heathen men and publicans. And now the Bible was a new revelation to the men that came into this movement. The veil was taken off their eyes, and they could read the Scriptures as they had never read them before. They could now see that the Bible was a simple and intelligible volume, written to be understood by the common people, and they were only amazed at their former blindness. ...

— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler • Pardee Butler

... did not cushion or veil cold, hard fact. Dr. Gordon Ashe, one of the four men peering unhappily at the display, shook his head slightly as if to free ...

— The Defiant Agents • Andre Alice Norton

... gills. The gills end with abrupt upward curves at the center of the cap without being attached to the stem. In the young mushroom, when the cap is folded down about the stem, the gills are not noticeable, as they are covered by a veil or filmy membrane, a part of which remains attached to the stem (when the top expands), as a ring or collar about the stem a little more than halfway up from the ground. The stem is solid and not hollow, ...

— The Home Medical Library, Volume V (of VI) • Various

... his wife and children an ode that he had just written, dedicated to Peace, ruler of men and things, "Ara Pacis Augustae." In it he wished to celebrate the near approach of universal brotherhood. It was a July evening; a last rosy light lay on the tree-tops, and through the luminous haze, like a veil over the slopes of the hillside and the grey plain of the distant city, the windows on Montmartre burned like sparks of gold. Dinner was just over. Clerambault leaned across the table where the dishes yet stood, and as he spoke his glance full of simple pleasure passed from one to the other ...

— Clerambault - The Story Of An Independent Spirit During The War • Rolland, Romain

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