veil
noun
- any lightweight covering for the head or face or both
- component of cosmetics
verb
- to conceal or disguise
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /veɪl/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English veil, veyl, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French veil (“sail, veil, shroud”) (Francien Old French voil, French voile), Latin vēlum (“cloth, covering”). Displaced Middle English scleire, scleyre, sleyre, slyre (“veil”) (compare German Schleier). Doublet of velum and voile.
- Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.
“The veil of the temple was rent in twain.”
“She, as a veil down to the slender waist, / Her unadorned golden tresses wore.”
- Anything that partially obscures a clear view.
“Above the smoky veil over the town rose Akerhus fort, with its towers standing out in sharp relief against the mirror of the fjord, beyond where the Nœs point loomed as a black shadow.”
- A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
“[I will] pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page.”
“Beckett complains that "in the forest of symbols" there is never quiet, and longs to break through the veil of language to silence.”
- A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul (especially over the head)
“a nun's veil”
“a paten veil”
- The calyptra of mosses.
- velum (A circular membrane round the cap of a medusa).
- A thin layer of tissue which is attached to or covers a mushroom.
- A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; a velum.
“The genus Amanita has both a volva and a veil; the spores are white, and the stem is easily separable from the cap.”
- An obscuration of the clearness of the tones in pronunciation.
- That which separates the living and the spirit world.
“"I have heard most furious bigots talking through the veil." "So have I, for that matter," said Malone, "and in this very room."”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English veil, veyl, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French veil (“sail, veil, shroud”) (Francien Old French voil, French voile), Latin vēlum (“cloth, covering”). Displaced Middle English scleire, scleyre, sleyre, slyre (“veil”) (compare German Schleier). Doublet of velum and voile.
- To dress in, or decorate with, a veil.
“I'm under surface Towers veiled in silk I guess I'm not welcome In this house they built”
- To conceal as with a veil.
“The forest fire was veiled by smoke, but I could hear it clearly.”