The Collaborative International Dictionary
Veil \Veil\ (v[=a]l), n. [OE. veile, OF. veile, F. voile, L. velum a sail, covering, curtain, veil, probably fr. vehere to bear, carry, and thus originally, that which bears the ship on. See Vehicle, and cf. Reveal.] [Written also vail.]
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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.
The veil of the temple was rent in twain.
--Matt. xxvii. 51.She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadorn['e]d golden tresses wore.
--Milton. -
A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
[I will] pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page.
--Shak. -
(Bot.)
The calyptra of mosses.
A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; -- called also velum.
(Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing; as, a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil.
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(Zo["o]l.) Same as Velum, 3.
To take the veil (Eccl.), to receive or be covered with, a veil, as a nun, in token of retirement from the world; to become a nun.
Usage examples of "to take the veil".
They say Ironhead had his wife poisoned before he marched here because she refused to take the veil and enter a convent to leave him free to marry me.
The bride had fled her unbearable dilemma to take the veil rather than marry anyone but her unfortunate lover Roscelin.
There she had been confined, and the child removed as soon as it was born: she had resisted all the force and threats employed to induce her to take the veil.
In a few weeks, I heard it said that Flaminia was to return to the convent, and shortly after that to take the veil.
At her husband's death she had attempted to take the veil, but Pope Clement had forbidden it.
If she leaves a note behind saying that she is determined even to take the veil rather than marry the man her father has chosen for her, that will cause additional delay.