revealing

1. 1
   adjective

   Of clothing, showing more of the body or skin than is usually shown in public.

   The actress chose a revealing gown for the red carpet.

   Critics called the swimsuit far too revealing for a family magazine.

   Similarskimpy, low-cut, sexy, daring

   Oppositemodest, demure

   Note

   Clothing has its own version of the word, and it is always relative. A shirt, gown or swimsuit is revealing only against what is usual, so the judgment shifts with the setting. The noun usually settles which sense is meant: a revealing dress shows the body, while a revealing remark belongs to the 'informative' sense. It sits easily after a verb too: her shirt is rather revealing.

2. 2
   adjective

   Giving away useful or surprising information about something; informative.

   The leaked emails proved highly revealing about the company's plans.

   His silence on the subject was more revealing than any statement.

   Similartelling, informative, illuminating, enlightening, significant

   Oppositeuninformative

   Note

   The adjective grew out of the participle: Middle English reveling, simply reveal plus -ing, the same form as the verb form. What it gives away is often its owner rather than its topic. In David Austin Walsh's 2019 essay in Jewish Currents, Tucker Carlson's objections are 'revealing' about Carlson and his friends. It grades like any adjective: a revealing analysis, more revealing, most revealing.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of reveal.

   The magician is revealing his final trick to the audience.

   Revealing the ending too early ruined the surprise for everyone.

   Note

   The verb form shares its spelling with the adjectives, and two tests tell them apart. In 'is revealing his trick' the word takes an object, so it is the verb. In 'is very revealing' it takes very or more, which only the adjective accepts. As a gerund it still behaves like a verb (revealing the ending). It also carries every meaning of reveal, including the religious one of making known what could not otherwise be discovered.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   An act or process of showing something previously hidden, or the thing that is shown.

   Like drawing back a stage curtain to expose the set behind it.

   The slow revealing of the plot kept readers hooked until the last page.

   Her sudden revealing of the truth changed everything between them.

   Similarrevelation, disclosure, unveiling, uncovering

   Oppositeconcealment

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, the full noun takes an article, an of-phrase and a plural: a great revealing of secrets. The plural turns up in nineteenth-century prose. Tait's Edinburgh Magazine in 1836 speaks of 'fuller revealings of the inner man', and Herman Melville's Pierre (1852) has Pierre turning over 'these strange revealings'. Revelation, disclosure and unveiling cover the same ground.

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