veil

Pluralveils

Formsveils, veiling, veiled

1. 1
   cloth coveringnouncountable

   Something hung or spread out to hide or protect the face or to hide an object from view, usually made of a thin, sheer fabric such as gauze or crepe.

   The widow wore a black veil to the funeral, her face barely visible through the lace.

   A gauze veil was draped over the statue until the mayor pulled it away.

   Similarshroud, covering

   Note

   Latin vēlum, a cloth or covering, reached English through Anglo-Norman veil, which could also mean a sail or a shroud, and it pushed out the older English word scleire. Velum and the fabric voile are its doublets. The temple veil of the King James Bible, rent in twain, was a hanging curtain rather than anything worn, while Milton's Eve wears her own golden hair as a veil.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To hide or cover something, as if with a veil.

   A haze of dust veiled the valley as the trucks rumbled past.

   He tried to veil his disappointment behind a polite smile.

   Similarhide, conceal, mask, obscure, shroud

   Oppositereveal, expose, uncover

3. 3
   hazenounfigurativelycountable

   Anything that partly blocks or blurs a clear view, such as smoke, mist, or haze.

   By evening a veil of smoke from the wildfires hung over the city.

   Through the veil of falling snow, the lighthouse beam flickered on and off.

   Similarpall, curtain, blanket, shroud, haze

   Note

   It usually comes as a veil of something: smoke, mist, haze, falling snow. The image keeps the thinness of the fabric, so shapes still show through, the way a fort can rise above a smoky veil over a town. Where a blanket of fog hides everything, a veil of mist only blurs it.

4. 4
   cover-upnouncountable

   Something that covers or disguises the truth, like a mask or a pretense.

   The charity's veil of respectability fell away once the auditors examined its books.

   Under a veil of politeness, the two rivals traded barbed remarks all evening.

   Similarmask, facade, cloak, guise, cover

   Note

   It usually takes of and a quality worn for show: a veil of modesty, of respectability, of politeness. People hide under or behind such a veil, and others lift, pluck or tear it away: Shakespeare writes of plucking "the borrowed veil of modesty" from the so-seeming Mistress Page, and John Zerzan pictures Beckett longing to break through the veil of language to silence.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To dress someone in a veil, or to decorate something with a veil.

   Decorators veil the arches with gauze and tiny lights before every gala.

   The nuns veiled the young novice at the end of the ceremony.

6. 6
   spirit worldnounfigurativelycountable

   The boundary thought to separate the world of the living from the world of spirits.

   At the séance, the medium claimed to hear voices from beyond the veil.

   In her last days she spoke calmly of crossing the veil to be with her late husband again.

   Note

   Spiritualists picture a thin curtain between this world and the next, and the word lives mainly in two set phrases: beyond the veil for the world of the dead, through the veil for messages said to cross it. Arthur Conan Doyle's characters compare the furious bigots they have heard talking through the veil, and the idiom stays at home in ghost stories and séance rooms.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A covering for a person or thing, such as a caul over the head, a nun's headdress, or a cloth over an altar or sacred vessel.

   Sister Agnes received her white veil when she entered the convent as a novice.

   A silk veil covered the chalice and paten until the offertory.

   Note

   Church vocabulary keeps several of these coverings: a nun's veil, an altar veil, a paten veil laid over the plate that holds the bread at Mass. The caul, the membrane some babies are born with over the head, could also be called a veil, so the word reaches from the cradle to the altar.

8. 8
   mushroom covernouncountable

   A thin layer of tissue that is attached to a mushroom or covers it.

   As the mushroom grows, its veil tears, leaving white patches scattered across the cap.

   Field guides note whether a species has a universal veil, which encloses the entire young fruiting body.

   Note

   Mycologists distinguish two kinds by how much they cover. A universal veil wraps the whole young mushroom, and as the cap pushes through, its torn remains are left as patches on the cap or a cup at the base of the stalk; those leftovers are among the most useful clues for telling species apart. The partial veil covers only the gills.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A membrane connecting the edge of a mushroom's cap, or pileus, with the stalk.

   As the cap expands, the veil tears away from its margin and often survives as a ring around the stalk.

   An unbroken veil hid the gills, a sign that the button mushroom had only just come up.

   Note

   This is the partial veil, the membrane that shields the gills while they form and tears as the cap spreads, often leaving a ring, or annulus, around the stalk. George Francis Atkinson's Studies of American Fungi notes that the genus Amanita has both a volva and a veil, the combination that helps pick the genus out.

10. 10
    moss capnouncountable

    The calyptra of a moss, the hood-like covering over its developing spore capsule.

    Each capsule of the moss was still capped by a pale, pointed veil.

    Bryologists use the shape of the veil, smooth or hairy, to help identify some moss genera.

    Similarcalyptra

    Note

    Botanists who study mosses usually say calyptra, and veil is the plain English name for the same hood. It forms from the tissue that enclosed the young spore stalk, rides up on the capsule as the stalk lengthens, and falls away as the capsule ripens.

11. 11
    jellyfish edgenouncountable

    The velum, a circular membrane around the edge of the cap of a medusa, the free-swimming jellyfish form.

    Contracting its bell, the hydromedusa forced water through the narrow opening of its veil.

    In the drawing, the veil appears as a thin shelf projecting inward from the margin of the bell.

    Similarvelum

    Note

    Only hydrozoan jellyfish, mostly small ones, have this inward shelf of tissue; the larger true jellyfish lack it. By narrowing the opening under the bell it strengthens the jet of water the animal pushes out to swim. Zoologists generally call it the velum.

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