veil
UK/veɪl/
veil noun: something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.
Noun
veil (plural veils)
- Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.
- The veil of the temple was rent in twain.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 27:51
- She, as a veil down to the slender waist, / Her unadorned golden tresses wore.1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Anything that partially obscures a clear view.
- Above the smoky veil over the town rose Akerhus fort, with its towers standing out in sharp relief against the mirror of the fjord, beyond where the Nœs point loomed as a black shadow.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 160
- A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
- [I will] pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Beckett complains that "in the forest of symbols" there is never quiet, and longs to break through the veil of language to silence.2007, John Zerzan, Silence, page 4
- A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul (especially over the head)
- a nun's veil
- a paten veil
- The calyptra of mosses.
- velum (A circular membrane round the cap of a medusa).
- A thin layer of tissue which is attached to or covers a mushroom.
- A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; a velum.
- The genus Amanita has both a volva and a veil; the spores are white, and the stem is easily separable from the cap.1903, George Francis Atkinson, chapter VI, in Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc., 2nd edition, New York: Henry Holt
- An obscuration of the clearness of the tones in pronunciation.
- That which separates the living and the spirit world.
- "I have heard most furious bigots talking through the veil." "So have I, for that matter," said Malone, "and in this very room."1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
Verb
veil (third-person singular simple present veils, present participle veiling, simple past and past participle veiled)
- To dress in, or decorate with, a veil.
- Bedouin women veil their faces more strictly than city dwellers but enjoy greater freedom of dress and movement.1987 October, Marianne Alireza, “Women of Saudi Arabia”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 436
- I'm under surface
Towers veiled in silk
I guess I'm not welcome
In this house they built2018, “White Hot”, performed by Loathe
- To conceal as with a veil.
- The forest fire was veiled by smoke, but I could hear it clearly.
veil meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
veil in Hindi
- covering for a person or thing
- घूँघट ghūṅghaṭ
veil in Tamil
- something to hide an object
- மூடி mūṭi, முகமூடி mukamūṭi
- covering for a person or thing
- முக்காடு mukkāṭu
veil in Marathi
- बुरखा
veil in Urdu
- something to hide an object
- پَرْدَہ parda
- covering for a person or thing
- گُھون٘گَٹ ghūṅgaṭ, پَرْدَہ parda
More languagesFewer languages
- veil in Bengali
- মশারি mośari, মোয়াইর mōẇair, অবগুন্ঠন obogunṭhon
- veil in Telugu
- ముఖవస్త్రము mukhavastramu
- veil in Malayalam
- ഹിജാബ് hijābŭ, വിരി viri, മറ maṟa
- veil in Kannada
- ಬಾಡು bāḍu
- veil in Punjabi
- ਘੁੰਡ ghuṇḍ, گُھنْڈ ghunḍ
- veil in Odia
- ଢାଙ୍କିବା ḍhāṅkibā
- veil in Sanskrit
- वृणोति vṛṇoti
- veil in Assamese
- ওৰণি üroni
- veil in Tagalog
- taong
- veil in Arabic
- حِجَاب ḥijāb, خِمَار ḵimār, نِقَاب niqāb, بُرْقُع burquʕ
Examples of veil in a sentence
- From behind the Rawlsian veil, consumption and leisure interact with mortality to determine expected utility.
- Lady Mary – the Queen's handmaiden – was Ser Gawain's lady; her veil fluttered from his shoulder.
- A fall of hair tumbled down one side of her body like a veil.
Forms of veil
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | veils |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | veils |
| present participle | veiling |
| past participle | veiled |
| past | veiled |
Origin of veil
From Middle English veil, veyl, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French veil (“sail, veil, shroud”) (Francien Old French voil, French voile), Latin vēlum (“cloth, covering”). Displaced Middle English scleire, scleyre, sleyre, slyre (“veil”) (compare German Schleier). Doublet of velum and voile.
Words formed from veil
Phrases with veil
Words that rhyme with veil
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- pale
- avail
- wale
- whale
- bail
- hail
- yale
- bale
- snail
- travail
- brail
- exhale
- frail
- jail
- prevail
- swale
- vail
- wail
- derail
- dwale
- entail
- flail
- Gail
- gayle
- impale
- kale
- quail
- regale
- spale
- thumbnail
- white whale
- ale
- curtail
- drail
- gale
- inhale
- retail
- shale
- tael
- unveil
- ail
- all hail
- assail
- ayel
- beyond the pale
- braille
- cakes and ale
- camail
Questions about veil
- What does veil mean?
- Veil means something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.
- What is veil in Hindi?
- Veil in Hindi is घूँघट (ghūṅghaṭ). See Veil meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is veil?
- Veil can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce veil?
- Veil is pronounced /veɪl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of veil?
- The plural of veil is veils.
Words near veil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: veil (page history and authors); veil (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); অবগুন্ঠন (Bengali) (page history and authors); മറ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಬಾಡು (Kannada) (page history and authors); ଢାଙ୍କିବା (Odia) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-veil.ogg.
Cite this entry: “veil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/veil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.