VEIL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Veil

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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

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."

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Etymology of 'Veil'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Veil" Quotes from Famous Books

... decorated with a flounce of costly point lace, headed by tulle puffings; the berthe to match. Her hair, slightly waved, was rolled a la Eugenie, and elaborately puffed in noeuds behind, in which the bridal veil was looped: natural orange blossoms breathed their perfume above her brow, and mingled their fragrance with the soft sighs of her gentle bosom. Roses and japonicas composed a star-shaped bouquet, which she held in her ...

— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton

... only a subdued light, from lamps thinly sprinkled among the ferns and flowers. There were four large groups of statuary, placed judiciously, and under the central dome there was a fountain, where, half hidden by a veil of glittering spray, Neptune was wooing Tyro, under the aspect of a river-god, ...

— Vixen, Volume I. • M. E. Braddon

... argument as to suitability of language appears to support my own theory; it being open to assume that after formulation—that is, in alchemy's latter days—chemical nomenclature and theories were employed by certain writers to veil heterodox religious doctrine. ...

— Bygone Beliefs • H. Stanley Redgrove

... guarantees to this fundamental one. For instance, in order that knowledge might never be disseminated among the masses, I would appropriate to myself and my accomplices the monopoly of the sciences. I would hide them under the veil of a dead language and hieroglyphic writing; and, in order that no danger might take me unawares, I would be careful to invent some ceremony which day by day would give me access to the privacy of ...

— Sophisms of the Protectionists • Frederic Bastiat

... wraps, was evidently a maid-servant: the other, in black, was Pogson's fair one, evidently. I could see a gleam of curl-papers over a sallow face,—of a dusky nightcap flapping over the curl-papers,—but these were hidden by a lace veil and a huge velvet bonnet, of which the crowning birds-of-paradise were evidently in a moulting state. She was encased in many shawls and wrappers; she put, hesitatingly, a pretty little foot out of the carriage—Pogson was by her side in an instant, and, gallantly putting one of ...

— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

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