veil

Etymology

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.

noun

1. 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.
2. (figurative) 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
3. A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
   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
4. A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul (especially over the head)
   a nun's veil
   a paten veil
   an altar veil
5. (biology) The calyptra of mosses.
6. (zoology) velum (A circular membrane round the cap of a medusa).
7. (mycology) A thin layer of tissue which is attached to or covers a mushroom.
8. (mycology) 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
9. An obscuration of the clearness of the tones in pronunciation.
10. (figurative, parapsychology) That which separates the living and the spirit world.

verb

1. (transitive) To dress in, or decorate with, a veil.
2. (transitive) To conceal as with a veil.
   The forest fire was veiled by smoke, but I could hear it clearly.