Definitions for: Veil


[n] a garment that covers the head and face
[n] a vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl
[n] the inner embryonic membrane of higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)
[v] to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil; "a conspiracy of silence veiling it"



Webster (1913) Definition: Veil (v[=a]l), n. [OE. veile, OF. veile, F. voile, L.
velum a sail, covering, curtain, veil, probably fr. vehere to
bear, carry, and thus originally, that which bears the ship
on. See Vehicle, and cf. Reveal.] [Written also vail.]
1. 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. --Matt.
xxvii. 51.

She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her
unadorn['e]d golden tresses wore. --Milton.

2. A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.

[I will] pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the
so seeming Mistress Page. --Shak.

3. (Bot.)
(a) The calyptra of mosses.
(b) A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a
mushroom with the stalk; -- called also velum.

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

5. (Zo["o]l.) 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.


Veil, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Veiled; p. pr. & vb. n.
Veiling.] [Cf. OF. veler, F. voiler, L. velarc. See Veil,
n.] [Written also vail.]
1. 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. --Milton.

2. Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal.

To keep your great pretenses veiled. --Shak.

Synonyms: caul, embryonic membrane, head covering, humeral veil

Antonyms: unveil

See Also: chadar, chaddar, chador, chuddar, conceal, cover, fetal membrane, garment, hide, placenta, vestment, yashmac, yashmak

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