• (RP, GA) IPA: /veɪl/

veil (plural veils)

1. 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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Matthew 27:51 ↗:

     The veil of the temple was rent in twain.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     She, as a veil down to the slender waist, / Her unadorned golden tresses wore.

2. A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:

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

   • 2007. Zerzan, John. Silence. p. 4.

     Beckett complains that "in the forest of symbols" there is never quiet, and longs to break through the veil of language to silence.

3. The calyptra of mosses.
4. A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; a velum.
5. A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul (especially over the head)

   a nun's veil

   a paten veil

   an altar veil

6. (zoology) velum A circular membrane round the cap of medusa
7. (mycology) A thin layer of tissue which is attached to or covers a mushroom.
8. An obscuration of the clearness of the tones in pronunciation.

• French: voile
• German: Vorhang
• Portuguese: véu
• Russian: покрыва́ло
• Spanish: velo

• French: voile
• German: Schleier
• Portuguese: véu
• Russian: вуаль
• Spanish: velo

veil (veils, present participle veiling; past and past participle veiled)

1. (transitive) To dress in, or decorate with, a veil.
2. (transitive) To conceal as with a veil.

   The forest fire was veiled by smoke, but I could hear it clearly.

• French: voiler
• German: verschleiern, verhüllen
• Portuguese: velar

• French: voiler
• German: verhüllen
• Portuguese: velar
• Spanish: velar