VEIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does veil mean? 

• VEIL (noun)
  The noun VEIL has 4 senses:

1. a garment that covers the head and face

2. a membranous covering attached to the immature fruiting body of certain mushrooms

3. the inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)

4. a vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl

  Familiarity information: VEIL used as a noun is uncommon.

• VEIL (verb)
  The verb VEIL has 2 senses:

1. to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil

2. make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing

  Familiarity information: VEIL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VEIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A garment that covers the head and face

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

head covering; veil

Hypernyms ("veil" is a kind of...):

garment (an article of clothing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "veil"):

chadar; chaddar; chador; chuddar (a cloth used as a head covering (and veil and shawl) by Muslim and Hindu women)

face veil (a piece of more-or-less transparent material that covers the face)

yashmac; yashmak (the face veil worn by Muslim women)

Derivation:

veil (to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A membranous covering attached to the immature fruiting body of certain mushrooms

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

veil; velum

Hypernyms ("veil" is a kind of...):

plant part; plant structure (any part of a plant or fungus)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "veil"):

universal veil (membrane initially completely investing the young sporophore of various mushrooms that is ruptured by growth; represented in the mature mushroom by a volva around lower part of stem and scales on upper surface of the cap)

partial veil (membrane of the young sporophore of various mushrooms extending from the margin of the cap to the stem and is ruptured by growth; represented in mature mushroom by an annulus around the stem and sometimes a cortina on the margin of the cap)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

caul; embryonic membrane; veil

Hypernyms ("veil" is a kind of...):

fetal membrane (any membrane that functions for the protection or nourishment or respiration or excretion of a developing fetus)

Holonyms ("veil" is a part of...):

placenta (the vascular structure in the uterus of most mammals providing oxygen and nutrients for and transferring wastes from the developing fetus)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

humeral veil; veil

Hypernyms ("veil" is a kind of...):

vestment (gown (especially ceremonial garments) worn by the clergy)

Derivation:

veil (to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil)

• VEIL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they veil    ... he / she / it veils   
Past simple: veiled   
Past participle: veiled   
-ing form: veiling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

women in Afghanistan veil their faces

Hypernyms (to "veil" is one way to...):

conceal; hide (prevent from being seen or discovered)

"Veil" entails doing...:

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

unveil (remove the veil from)

Derivation:

veil (a garment that covers the head and face)

veil (a vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blot out; hide; obliterate; obscure; veil

Context example:

a veiled threat

Hypernyms (to "veil" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

efface; obliterate (remove completely from recognition or memory)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "veil"):

mystify (make mysterious)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Would the veil in which Mrs. Tilney had last walked, or the volume in which she had last read, remain to tell what nothing else was allowed to whisper?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

No veiled future dimly glanced upon him in the moonbeams.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The lady was dressed in a dark suit and covered with a thick black veil.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But presently she took my veil from its place; she held it up, gazed at it long, and then she threw it over her own head, and turned to the mirror.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This, at least, was real, he thought, and turned on the other side so that he might see the reality of the world which had been veiled from him before by the vision.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The woman, without a word, had raised her veil and dropped the mantle from her chin.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was at least two feet in length, a curved bone, with a membranous veil beneath it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"A tall figure, all in white with a veil over its face and a lamp in its wasted hand," went on Meg.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We knew Arctic sea ice was decreasing, but the snow cover has become so thin that its shield has become a veil.

(Snow cover on Arctic Sea ice has thinned 30 to 50 percent, NASA)