Word.ws English Dictionary

taking the veil

taking the veil is the present participle and gerund of take the veil.

Meaning of take the veil

Verb

take the veil (third-person singular simple present takes the veil, present participle taking the veil, simple past took the veil, past participle taken the veil)

  1. (idiomatic) To retire into a convent and live as a nun.
    • “[…] I shall devote myself for a time to the examination of the Roman Catholic dogmas, and to a careful study of the workings of their system: if I find it to be, as I half suspect it is, the one best calculated to ensure the doing of all things decently and in order, I shall embrace the tenets of...1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VII, in Jane Eyre. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 185

Questions about taking the veil

What is taking the veil the present participle and gerund of?
Taking the veil is the present participle and gerund of take the veil.

Words near taking the veil in the dictionary

  1. taking the stand
  2. taking the studs
  3. taking the sun
  4. taking the time
  5. taking the trouble
  6. taking the veil
  7. taking the weight off
  8. taking the weight off one's feet
  9. taking the wheel
  10. taking the wind out of someone's sails
  11. taking the words out of someone's mouth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking the veil (page history and authors); take the veil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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