veiledveiled /veɪld/ adjective 
His speech is being seen as a veiled attack on asylum-seekers. ‘I’m impressed,’ said Greg, with thinly veiled (=only slightly hidden) sarcasm. Jasper remained silent and his eyes were veiled (=you could not guess what he was thinking).
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Her comments were nothing more than a veiled criticism of my work.
- His attempt to get us to help him is just a veiled form of blackmail.
- The opposition leader has made thinly veiled threats of violence.
- He suddenly remembered her carefully veiled amusement when he had mentioned the tinkers.
- I hate to disappoint anyone but that wasn't the case - although the veiled hints caused us plenty of amusement.
- Perfectly aware of the veiled disapproval, his kindlier feelings abated, to be replaced by a resurgence of ill humour.
- The veiled women had reminded me of the nuns.
- Two veiled female figures leaned in exaggerated mourning over an urn in the Grecian taste of the 1810s.
- Was this a veiled threat to Richard?
Longman Language Activatorwords for describing feelings, attitudes etc that are hidden
· He's always joking around to make sure his true feelings stay hidden.· Even after years of psychiatric treatment, she was full of hidden anger.hidden talents (=abilities that you did not know someone had) · You can dance and sing! I never realized you had so many hidden talents.hidden meaning · The lyrics of most of his songs have some hidden meaning.
feelings or attitudes that are disguised are kept hidden, but usually not very well: · "OK, I'll do it," she said with barely disguised hostility.thinly disguised (=hardly disguised at all): · The speech was seen by many as a thinly disguised attack on the President.
strong feelings, such as anger, fear, or happiness, that are suppressed are ones that you do not allow yourself to feel or show: · He is full of suppressed anger and needs to find some way of releasing it.· The intensity of the trial caused her long-suppressed emotions to come out in the open.
feelings that are repressed are ones that you deliberately stop yourself from feeling, or have been taught not to feel from when you were a child, especially feelings that you are ashamed of: · The Victorian era is characterized by its strict conventions and repressed emotion.· I had a lot of repressed anger toward my family that I didn't realize till my father died.
a veiled threat, warning etc is one that you do not make directly, but deliberately do not hide well, so that the person you are dealing with understands what your real intention is: · His attempt to get us to help him is just a veiled form of blackmail.· Her comments were nothing more than a veiled criticism of my work.thinly veiled (=only slightly hidden): · The opposition leader has made thinly veiled threats of violence.
strange and difficult to explain or understand events, behaviour, or situations that are mysterious are difficult to explain or understand: · Police are investigating the mysterious disappearance of a young schoolteacher.· He was seen leaving the building at midnight with two men -- it was all very mysterious.· She had been suffering from mysterious fits for five years before the doctors diagnosed epilepsy.in mysterious circumstances: · The ship vanished in mysterious circumstances, never to be seen again.
very different from what you expect or from what usually happens, in a way that makes you feel a little frightened or surprised: · You say she's at home? That's strange because she told me she was going abroad for two weeks.· His strange behaviour made Teresa suspicious.it is strange that: · It was strange that she had had this baby with red hair when both she and her husband were very dark.
if something is a mystery , you cannot understand how or why it happens: · How had he escaped from prison without anyone's help? It was a mystery.it's a mystery (to me) why/what etc: · It is a mystery to me why people decide to get married.be a complete mystery: · Four years after the event, the scientist's suicide remains a complete mystery.
if an event or a situation, especially one that happened a long time ago, is shrouded in mystery , it is mysterious because no one knows exactly what happened: · The exact circumstances of Marilyn Monroe's death are shrouded in mystery.· Stone age civilization, veiled in mystery as it is, has provided the greatest challenge to historians.
secret information/plans/places/activities if something is secret , not many people know about it, and they agree not to tell anyone else about it: · The letter was written in a secret code.· Secret documents containing details of Britain's defence plans have been stolen.· The president's schedule is secret, but there is speculation that he will visit UN troops in the area.remain/stay secret: · I hope you see how vital it is that our conversation remains secret.top secret (=when an official document, piece of information etc is very secret): · The experiments were top secret.secret ballot (=a secret vote): · The Leader of the House will be selected by secret ballot.
confidential information is known only by a few official people, and must not be told to anyone else, for example because it contains military secrets or private details about people: · We hold confidential records on each employee.· Always protect confidential files by locking them with a password.· An employee secretly gave confidential memos to the press.highly confidential (=very confidential): · The information we received is of a highly confidential nature and relates to national security.
classified information or documents are ones that the government has ordered to be kept secret: · There is evidence that Huang had access to classified information.· Only licensed companies are eligible to receive, store, or send classified material.
information or documents that are sensitive are likely to cause problems or embarrassment if they are made public and therefore they are kept secret: · A teenager used his personal computer to break into sensitive US Air Force files. · Your competitors may have access to the company intranet, so never discuss commercially sensitive issues on-line.highly sensitive: · The minister admitted that highly sensitive documents had been leaked to the press.
done secretly, especially by a government or official organization, often involving breaking the law: · The chief investigator resigned, amid allegations of covert and probably illegal operations.· The abuse of residents in the home was confirmed by covert video surveillance.
working secretly - use this about the activities of the police, the army etc: · Six members of a drug-smuggling gang were arrested after an 18-month undercover police operation.· The unit is equipped to deal with a variety of situations, including undercover surveillance.
if something is veiled , cloaked , or shrouded in secrecy , very little is known about it and it seems very mysterious: · In Japan, the private lives of the Emperor and his family were once veiled in secrecy.· The President's exact itinerary was cloaked in secrecy for security reasons.· This ground-breaking work is shrouded in secrecy on the instruction of the company's lawyers.
informal kept officially secret: · His death was really hush-hush. It was so covered up that you wondered if it wasn't a suicide.· 'The Manhattan Project' was the insiders' name for the hush-hush project.
use this about methods and activities that involve a lot of secrecy, especially when this seems unnecessary: · He was arrested after a cloak-and-dagger operation involving the CIA and MI6.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY His speech is being seen as a veiled attack on asylum-seekers. ‘I’m impressed,’ said Greg, with thinly veiled (=only slightly hidden) sarcasm. Jasper remained silent and his eyes were veiled (=you could not guess what he was thinking).COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
His speech is being seen as a veiled attack on asylum-seekers. ‘I’m impressed,’ said Greg, with thinly veiled (=only slightly hidden) sarcasm. Jasper remained silent and his eyes were veiled (=you could not guess what he was thinking). (=be unable to be explained)· The origins of this tradition remain shrouded in mystery.
(=one that is not made directly)· The emails contained thinly veiled threats of harm.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Mrs Thatcher's public speeches contained thinly veiled warning messages to colleagues who doubted the strategy.· There is always a danger that it becomes a thinly veiled therapeutic exercise.
NOUN· Was this a veiled threat to Richard?· A feral world of backbiting malice, veiled threats, liars and blackmailers.· They backed up these demands with scarcely veiled threats.· They warned him with veiled threats against mentioning anything that he had witnessed the previous night.· His favourite line of attack was to start talking about finding useful employment for Vincent, and to issue veiled threats.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a veiled threat, warning, attack, reference etc is expressed so that its exact meaning is hidden or unclear: - Almost all his climbs have a certain something: a thinly disguised air of intimidation often allied to a raw brutality.
- Both, however, were under external threat from barbarians more or less thinly disguised.
- Dole passed up two thinly veiled invitations by moderator Jim Lehrer to address so-called character issues.
- Hardly compatible with discretion, that I should ride to the Palace in so thinly disguised a vehicle.
- I should hate to give the impression that my love for you is but thinly disguised lust.
- Mostly they turned out to be thinly disguised candidate ads, a violation of the spirit of the law at best.
- Mrs Thatcher's public speeches contained thinly veiled warning messages to colleagues who doubted the strategy.
- She was only thinly veiled, and Rostov could see that although she was beautiful, she was old.
His speech is being seen as a veiled attack on asylum-seekers. ‘I’m impressed,’ said Greg, with thinly veiled (=only slightly hidden) sarcasm. Jasper remained silent and his eyes were veiled (=you could not guess what he was thinking).