veil

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A length of cloth worn by women over the head, shoulders, and often the face.
2. n. A length of netting attached to a woman's hat or habit, worn for decoration or to protect the head and face.
3. n. The part of a nun's headdress that frames the face and falls over the shoulders.
4. n. The life or vows of a nun.
5. n. A piece of light fabric hung to separate or conceal what is behind it; a curtain.
6. n. Something that conceals, separates, or screens like a curtain: a veil of secrecy.
7. n. Biology A membranous covering or part, as that on the developing fruiting body of certain mushrooms; a velum.
8. v. To cover with or as if with a veil: Dense fog veiled the bridge.
9. v. To conceal or disguise.
10. v. To wear a veil.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A cloth or other fabric or material intended to conceal something from the eye; a curtain.
2. n. A piece of stuff, usually very light and more or less transparent, as lawn or lace, intended to conceal, wholly or in part, the features from close observation, while not materially obstructing the vision of the wearer; hence, such a piece of stuff forming a head-dress or part of a head-dress, especially for women. In the early middle ages the veil was commonly circular or semicircular in shape, and was worn in many ways. At a later time it was attached to the high and heavy head-dresses, such as the escoffion and the hennin, and was a mere ornamental appendage, not admitting of being drawn over the face. The veil, when small, is indistinguishable from the kerchief. In modern use the veil is a piece of gauze, grenadine, lace, crape, or similar fabric used to cover the face, either for concealment or as a screen against suulight, dust, insects, etc. In this capacity it usually forms no necessary part of the head-dress, but is attached to the bonnet or hat.
3. n. Hence, anything that prevents observation; a covering, mask, or disguise; also, a pretense.
4. n. A scarf tied to or hanging from a pastoral staff. See ovarium, 3, sudarium , vexillum, and banderole, 1 .
5. n. In anatomy and zoology, a velum.
6. n. In botany: In Hymenomycetes, same as velum, 2 .
7. n. In Discomycetes, a membranous or fibrous coating stretching over the mouth of the cup.
8. n. In mosses, same as calyptra, 1 .
9. n. In phonation, an obscuration of the clearness of the tones, either from a natural conformation of the larynx or from some accidental condition, as fatigue or a cold. The natural veil in some gifted and highly trained singers is often a beauty, while a huskiness due to imperfect use or accidental interference is a decided blemish. A voice in which a veil is present is called veiled, or voce velata or voix sombrée.
10. To cover with a veil, as the face, or face and head; cover the face of with a veil.
11. To invest; enshroud; envelop; hide.
12. Figuratively, to conceal; mask; disguise.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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 diaphanous material, to hide or protect the face.
2. n. A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
3. n. The calyptra of mosses.
4. n. A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; -- called also velum.
5. n. A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul; a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil; a Moslem veil.
6. n. Same as velum, 4.
7. n. mycology A thin layer of tissue which is attached to or covers a mushroom.
8. v. To don, or garb with, a veil.
9. v. To conceal as with a veil.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. A cover; a disguise; a mask; a pretense.
3. n. The calyptra of mosses.
4. n. A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; -- called also velum.
5. n. (Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing
6. n. (Zoöl.) Same as Velum, 3.
7. v. To throw a veil over; to cover with a veil.
8. v. Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing
2. n. a vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl
3. n. a garment that covers the head and face
4. v. to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil
5. n. a membranous covering attached to the immature fruiting body of certain mushrooms
6. n. the inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)