veil
noun
a piece of opaque or transparent material worn over the face for concealment, for protection from the elements, or to enhance the appearance.
veil
American
[veyl]
/ veɪl /
noun
-
veils
plural
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a piece of opaque or transparent material worn over the face for concealment, for protection from the elements, or to enhance the appearance.
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a piece of material worn so as to fall over the head and shoulders on each side of the face, forming a part of the headdress of a nun.
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the life of a nun, especially a cloistered life.
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something that covers, separates, screens, or conceals.
a veil of smoke; the veil of death.
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a mask, disguise, or pretense.
to find fault under a veil of humor.
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Botany, Anatomy, Zoology. a velum.
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Mycology. a membrane that covers the immature mushroom of many fungi and breaks apart as the mushroom expands, leaving distinctive remnants on the cap, stalk, or stalk base.
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Scot. and North England. a caul.
verb (used with object)
-
veils,
present (3rd person singular)
-
veiled,
past participle, past
-
veiling
present participle
-
to cover or conceal with or as with a veil.
She veiled her face in black. A heavy fog veiled the shoreline.
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to hide the real nature of; mask; disguise.
to veil one's intentions.
verb (used without object)
-
veils,
present (3rd person singular)
-
veiled,
past participle, past
-
veiling
present participle
idioms
veil
1
British
/ veɪl /
noun
-
a piece of more or less transparent material, usually attached to a hat or headdress, used to conceal or protect a woman's face and head
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part of a nun's headdress falling round the face onto the shoulders
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something that covers, conceals, or separates; mask
a veil of reticence
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the life of a nun in a religious order and the obligations entailed by it
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to become a nun
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Also called: velum. botany a membranous structure, esp the thin layer of cells connecting the edge of a young mushroom cap with the stipe
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anatomy another word for caul
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See humeral veil
verb
-
(tr) to cover, conceal, or separate with or as if with a veil
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(intr) to wear or put on a veil
Veil
2
British
/ vaɪl /
noun
veil
Scientific
/ vāl /
veil
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
veilsimple
-
veilssimple
-
have veiledperfect
-
has veiledperfect
-
am veilingprogressive
-
are veilingprogressive
-
is veilingprogressive
-
have been veilingperfect progressive
-
has been veilingperfect progressive
Past
-
veiledsimple
-
had veiledperfect
-
was veilingprogressive
-
were veilingprogressive
-
had been veilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of veil
1175–1225; (noun) Middle English veile < Anglo-French < Latin vēla, neuter plural (taken in VL as feminine singular) of vēlum covering; (v.) Middle English veilen < Anglo-French veiler, derivative of veile
Explanation
A veil is a cloth covering the head and face, mostly worn by women. Wedding veils are drawn back when the groom hears, "Now you may kiss the bride." (Or else the groom gets a gauzy mouthful.) This is a technical term for part of an embryo or mushroom, but it’s usually a covering for the head and face. Priests wear veils during certain Catholic ceremonies, and a grieving widow might wear a veil at her husband's funeral. To veil also means to conceal something. You could veil your attempt to steal some cookies by turning the TV up loud as a distraction. When something — like a lie — is "thinly veiled," people can see right through it.
Vocabulary lists containing veil
Put a Lid On It: Hats, Hoods, and Other Headgear
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This Week In Words: May 31–June 5, 2020
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Finishing Touches: Words for Accessories
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Molly, 32, wore a white short-sleeved mini dress with a matching pillbox hat and netted veil for the occassion, while Tom, 26, wore a black suit and tie.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
“You didn’t see a single veil back then,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
“We live under a veil of fear that we didn’t live under before 9/11,” Spielberg told USA Today while promoting the film.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
“Two years later I had a veil already,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
But of course, because she was wearing a veil, what they saw would not at once look like a forehead and a pair of eyes.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Within and around this region lie several popular deep-sky objects, including the Dumbbell Nebula, the Ring Nebula, the North America Nebula, and the Veil Nebula.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026
Badinter joined other national heroes, including author Victor Hugo, French-American member of the French Resistance Josephine Baker and Simone Veil, the women's rights heavyweight and health minister who championed legalising abortion.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2025
And after 40 years in Hollywood, he is taking on his first leading role in a TV series, "The Green Veil."
From Salon ● May 9, 2024
At the time, France’s health minister, Simone Veil, who was a survivor of Auschwitz, embraced the movement to legalize abortion, and when the bill was passed, it became known as the Veil Law.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
“Now is when the Veil will part, but it will not stay open for long,” she intoned, looking around.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
No one lies down—the chorus members don delicate face veils and hold lighted candles to show when they are sleeping.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
You could feel the energy coursing through the room of well-spoken women, some wearing tightly wrapped headscarves, others in head-to-toe veils, and some -including Kabawat - bare-headed.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
Under its 40-year-old de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom has loosened its arch-conservatism, allowing women to drive and shed their veils.
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2025
Perhaps the canvas’ most beautiful feature is the rich skin of black acrylic paint within which he and his steed, both rendered in soft veils of thin gouache, are embedded.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2025
He was panting as he approached the little house set back in a clearing of the woods, indistinct among the shadows and the veils of fog that enveloped it.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
"Presentations should not turn into self-representations," he wrote, in a thinly veiled swipe at Federov's long, detailed news conference last week.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Photos taken by local media outlet The Collective showed officers removing lyrics of a Cantonese song -- a veiled reference to huge and sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019 -- from the shop window.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
The galaxy is heavily veiled by dust, making it difficult to see in visible light.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 19, 2026
Knight Law Group denied inflating their billing, calling the suit a “thinly veiled attempt to silence firms who would dare to hold them responsible and seek justice for consumers.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
A round veiled woman stands behind a screen; only her silhouette shows.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
The fabled front was always understood to be window dressing veiling frustrations, squelched desires, and countless other malignancies.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2023
The U.N. rights committee said Iran should "amend or repeal laws and policies that criminalise the non-compliance with compulsory veiling... and disband the morality police".
From Reuters ● Nov. 3, 2023
She styled the tailored look with a headpiece featuring a crinoline base with a layer of tulle and merry widow veiling, adorned with a ribbon bow.
From Washington Times ● May 6, 2023
A century or more ago, strict veiling was largely limited to Iran’s upper classes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
They waited in silence, the emperor’s figure getting smaller and smaller as he walked away, the snow slowly veiling him from view.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
