veil

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A length of cloth worn over the head, shoulders, and often the face, especially by women.
• noun A length of netting attached to a woman's hat or habit, worn for decoration or to protect the head and face.
• noun A length of protective netting worn over the face by beekeepers.
• noun The part of a nun's headdress that frames the face and falls over the shoulders.
• noun The life or vows of a nun.
• noun Any of various cloth head coverings worn by Muslim women.
• noun A piece of light fabric hung to separate or conceal what is behind it; a curtain.
• noun Something that conceals, separates, or screens like a curtain.
• noun Biology A membranous covering or part, as that on the developing fruiting body of certain mushrooms; a velum.
• intransitive verb To cover with or as if with a veil.
• intransitive verb To conceal or disguise.
• intransitive verb To wear a veil.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To cover with a veil, as the face, or face and head; cover the face of with a veil.
• To invest; enshroud; envelop; hide.
• Figuratively, to conceal; mask; disguise.
• noun A cloth or other fabric or material intended to conceal something from the eye; a curtain.
• noun A piece of stuff, usually very light and more or less transparent, as lawn or lace, intended to conceal, wholly or in part, the features from close observation, while not materially obstructing the vision of the wearer; hence, such a piece of stuff forming a head-dress or part of a head-dress, especially for women.
• noun Hence, anything that prevents observation; a covering, mask, or disguise; also, a pretense.
• noun A scarf tied to or hanging from a pastoral staff. See ovarium, 3, sudarium , vexillum, and banderole, 1 .
• noun In anatomy and zoology, a velum.
• noun In botany: In Hymenomycetes, same as velum, 2 .
• noun In Discomycetes, a membranous or fibrous coating stretching over the mouth of the cup.
• noun In mosses, same as calyptra, 1 .
• noun In phonation, an obscuration of the clearness of the tones, either from a natural conformation of the larynx or from some accidental condition, as fatigue or a cold.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To throw a veil over; to cover with a veil.
• transitive verb Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal.
• noun 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.
• noun A cover; a disguise; a mask; a pretense.
• noun The calyptra of mosses.
• noun A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; -- called also velum.
• noun (Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing
• noun (Zoöl.) Same as Velum, 3.
• noun (Eccl.) to receive or be covered with, a veil, as a nun, in token of retirement from the world; to become a nun.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun 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 diaphanous material, to hide or protect the face.
• noun A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.
• noun The calyptra of mosses.
• noun A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; -- called also velum.
• noun A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul; a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil; a Moslem veil.
• noun Same as velum, 4.
• noun mycology A thin layer of tissue which is attached to or covers a mushroom.
• verb To don, or garb with, a veil.
• verb To conceal as with a veil.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing
• noun a vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; a silk shawl
• noun a garment that covers the head and face
• verb to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil