veil
(veɪl )
Word forms: veils
1. countable noun
A veil is a piece of thin soft cloth that women sometimes wear over their heads and which can also cover their face.
She's got long fair hair, but she's got a veil over it.
She swathes her face in a veil of decorative muslin.
Synonyms: mask, cover, shroud, film
2. countable noun [usually singular]
You can refer to something that hides or partly hides a situation or activity as a veil.
The country is ridding itself of its disgraced prime minister in a veil of secrecy. [+ of]
The chilling facts behind this veil of silence were slow to emerge. [+ of]
Synonyms: screen, mask, disguise, blind
3. countable noun
You can refer to something that you can partly see through, for example a mist, as a veil. [literary]
The eruption has left a thin veil of dust in the upper atmosphere. [+ of]
He recognized the coast of England through a veil of mist.
Bright moonlight shines through a thin veil of clouds.
Synonyms: film, cover, curtain, cloak
4. to draw a veil over something phrase
If you draw a veil over something, you stop talking about it because it is too unpleasant to talk about.
The clamour to draw a veil over the minister's extra-marital activities reeks of hypocrisy.
Image of veil
© Photosebia, Shutterstock
Idioms:
draw a veil over something
to deliberately not talk about something or give any details, because you want to keep it private or because it is embarrassing
Most of us have something in our past career over which we choose to draw a veil.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
corporate veil face veil wedding veil white veil
The 'corporate veil', the appeal judges said, could not be lifted other than in exceptional circumstances.
Times, Sunday Times
The principles relating to the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil in the confiscation context were the same as in the civil courts.
Times, Sunday Times
It's the other non-doms that matter, the ones that shelter behind a corporate veil.
Times, Sunday Times
Thus, the courts will pierce the corporate veil if shareholders use the corporation to perform an illegal act that would be improper if the individual did it personally.
Globe and Mail
Therefore, the case could go forward to trial to determine if plaintiffs may pierce the corporate veil.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
She started wearing a full face veil less than a year ago.
Times, Sunday Times
I don't like the face veil.
Times, Sunday Times
They also made her remove her face veil as they held her for about half an hour.
Times, Sunday Times
Be it burkini or face veil, extravagant displays of cultural separation do nothing to make us a healthier, happier society.
The Sun
No, refusing to remove her face veil.
The Sun
She had left clear instructions: she wanted a military funeral, and to be buried in a white dress and her wedding veil.
Times, Sunday Times
After a night of bad dreams, she wakes to find her wedding veil torn in two.
The Sun
She ends the first half of the work in a wedding veil amid falling red petals and opens the second trapped in a glass box — the attic.
Times, Sunday Times
She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
For example, in the 1920s, they were typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche-style wedding veils.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
On their head they wear a black veil for the professed--with a white veil for the novices--formerly attached to a coif and bandeau.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The members wore a black dress bound by a leathern girdle, a black sleeveless cloak, and a close-fitting headdress with a white veil and a longer black veil.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The colours were wonderful, bright pink, purple or blue velvet coats, yellow dresses with embroideries in red and green et cetera, and all wore a white veil.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Translations:
Chinese: 面纱
Japanese: ベール
- to speak highly of someone
- to speak ill of someone
- to speak of
- to speak volumes
- to speak well of someone
- to speak your mind
- to spend a penny
- to spill the beans
- to spread your wings
- to spring to mind
- toss
- toss and turn
- toss-up
- to stake a claim
- to stand a chance
- to stand comparison with sth
- to stand firm
- to stand on your own two feet
- to stand or fall
- to stand someone in good stead
- to stand trial
- to stand up and be counted
- to stand your ground
- to start the ball rolling
- to start with