Veil (?), 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.]
1. 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 unadornéd golden tresses wore. Milton.
2. A cover; a disguise; a mask; a pretense.
pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page. Shak.
3. (Bot.) (a) The calyptra of mosses. (b) A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; — called also velum.
4. (Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing; as, a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil.
5. (Zoöl.) 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.