veil









veil


noun

  1. a piece of opaque or transparent material worn over the face for concealment, for protection from the elements, or to enhance the appearance.
  2. a piece of material worn so as to fall over the head and shoulders on each side of the face, forming a part of the headdress of a nun.
  3. the life of a nun, especially a cloistered life.
  4. something that covers, separates, screens, or conceals: a veil of smoke; the veil of death.
  5. a mask, disguise, or pretense: to find fault under a veil of humor.
  6. Botany, Anatomy, Zoology. a velum.
  7. Mycology. a membrane that covers the immature mushroom of many fungi and breaks apart as the mushroom expands, leaving distinctive remnants on the cap, stalk, or stalk base.
  8. Scot. and North England. a caul.

verb (used with object)

  1. to cover or conceal with or as with a veil: She veiled her face in black. A heavy fog veiled the shoreline.
  2. to hide the real nature of; mask; disguise: to veil one’s intentions.

verb (used without object)

  1. to don or wear a veil: In certain Islamic countries women must veil.
Idioms
  1. take the veil, to become a nun.

noun

  1. a piece of more or less transparent material, usually attached to a hat or headdress, used to conceal or protect a woman’s face and head
  2. part of a nun’s headdress falling round the face onto the shoulders
  3. something that covers, conceals, or separates; maska veil of reticence
  4. the veil the life of a nun in a religious order and the obligations entailed by it
  5. take the veil to become a nun
  6. Also called: velum botany a membranous structure, esp the thin layer of cells connecting the edge of a young mushroom cap with the stipe
  7. anatomy another word for caul
  8. See humeral veil

verb

  1. (tr) to cover, conceal, or separate with or as if with a veil
  2. (intr) to wear or put on a veil

noun

  1. Simone (Annie) (simɔn). born 1927, French stateswoman; president of the European Parliament (1979–82): a survivor of Nazi concentration camps
n.

early 13c., from Anglo-French and Old North French veil (Old French voile) “a head-covering,” also “a sail,” from Latin vela, plural of velum “sail, curtain, covering,” from PIE root *weg- “to weave a web.” Vela was mistaken in Vulgar Latin for a feminine singular noun. To take the veil “become a nun” is attested from early 14c.

v.

late 14c., from Old French veler, voiller, from Latin velare “to cover, veil,” from velum (see veil (n.)). Figurative sense of “to conceal” (something immaterial) is recorded from 1530s. Related: Veiled; veiling.

n.

  1. caul
  2. velum

  1. A membranous covering or part, especially a membrane surrounding the young mushrooms of certain basidiomycete fungi. In some species the membrane (called a partial veil) extends only from the stalk to the cap. As the cap expands, the veil breaks, leaving a ring called an annulus on the stalk and often scalelike pieces on the cap. These veil remnants are important for identifying species of mushrooms.

see draw a veil over.

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