Word Direct Answers

What does "veil" mean?

Veil: She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadornéd golden tresses wore. Milton.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense. [I will] pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page. Shak.
  2. 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.
  3. 4.(Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing; as, a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil.
  4. 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.
  5. 6.To throw a veil over; to cover with a veil. Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight, Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined. Milton.
  6. 7.Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal. To keep your great pretenses veiled. Shak.

Sources