veil

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“
I wished to remove the veil, but a passing stranger stopped and told me laughingly that the veil was all that would ever be revealed of her to me -- of her, or any other woman!

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Definitions (41)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (10)

  1. noun A length of cloth worn by women over the head, shoulders, and often the face.
  2. noun A length of netting attached to a woman's hat or habit, worn for decoration or to protect the head and face.
  3. noun The part of a nun's headdress that frames the face and falls over the shoulders.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (23)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • "The thought of you lifting your veil is a hare-raising event," Humfrey explained. —  Up In A Heaval
  • So she represented us well, and when she returned to Firanja, she had come to believe that the veil was the biggest obstacle in the way of the progress of the Muslim woman, as standing for general complicity in the whole system. —  THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT - Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Before her veil was adjusted she happened to look up and saw herself in the large mirror before her, and burst into a laugh over her white face and Quaker bonnet. —  A Woman's Life-Work
  • Taking the veil is an affair which occurs so frequently in Montreal, that it has long ceased to be regarded as a novelty; and, although notice had been given in the French parish church as usual, only a small audience had assembled, as I have mentioned. —  Awful Disclosures Containing, Also, Many Incidents Never before Published
  • His arrival, preceded as it had been by the twenty-ninth bulletin, in which the veil was at last lifted from the fatal events of the campaign, restored for the moment the appearances of composure, amidst a population of which almost every family had lost a son or a brother. —  The History of Napoleon Buonaparte
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

robe ·  curtain ·  mantle ·  scarf ·  mist ·  ribbon ·  haze ·  drapery ·  blanket ·  frock ·  wreath ·  fabric

Used in the same contextWord Family

veil:   veiling ·  veils ·  veiled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old North French, from Latin vēla, pl. of vēlum, a covering.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also vail, vayle; from Middle English veile, veyle, vayle, fayle, from Old French veile, French voile, a veil, also a sail, = Provencal vel = Spanish Italian velo = Portuguese veo, a veil, vela, a sail, = Icelandic vil, from Latin vēlum, a sail, cloth, covering, from vehere, carry, bear along: see vehicle. Hence veil, v., reveal, revelation, etc.
  2. Early modern English also vail, vayle; from Middle English veilen, veyllen. from Old French veiler, voiler, French voiler = Spanish Portuguese velar = Italian velare, from Latin velare, cover, wrap, envelop, veil, from vēlum, a veil: see veil, n.
 

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/veɪl/
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