Veil n.  [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.
    [I will] 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. Zool. 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.