Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Veil

Veil (vāl), 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 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.

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 (vāl), 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.