veil Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a garment that covers the head and face
    head covering.
  2. noun a membranous covering attached to the immature fruiting body of certain mushrooms
    velum.
  3. noun the inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)
    embryonic membrane; caul.
  4. noun a vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl
    humeral veil.
  5. verb to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil
    • women in Afghanistan veil their faces
  6. verb make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing
    hide; obscure; obliterate; blot out.
    • a hidden message
    • a veiled threat

WordNet

Veil noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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 unadornéd 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. (Zoöl.) Same as Velum, 3.
Veil transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. OF. veler, F. voiler, L. velarc. See Veil, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Veiled ; present participle & verbal noun Veiling
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913