DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Vail n. & v. t. Same as Veil. [Obs.]
Vail, n.
1. Avails; profit; return; proceeds. [Obs.]
My house is as 'twere the cave where the young outlaw hoards the stolen vails of his occupation. --Chapman.
2. An unexpected gain or acquisition; a casual advantage or benefit; a windfall. [Obs.]
3. Money given to servants by visitors; a gratuity; -- usually in the plural. [Written also vale.]
Vail, v. t. [Written also vale, and veil.]
1. To let fall; to allow or cause to sink. [Obs.]
Vail your regard
Upon a wronged, I would fain have said, a maid! --Shak.
2. To lower, or take off, in token of inferiority, reverence, submission, or the like.
France must vail her lofty-plumed crest! --Shak.
Without vailing his bonnet or testifying any reverence for the alleged sanctity of the relic. --Sir. W. Scott.
Vail v. i. To yield or recede; to give place; to show respect by yielding, uncovering, or the like. [Written also vale, and veil.] [Obs.]
Thy convenience must vail to thy neighbor's necessity. --South.
Vail, n. Submission; decline; descent. [Obs.]
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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.
Veil v. t. [imp. & p. p. Veiled p. pr. & vb. n. Veiling.] [Written also vail.]
1. 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.
2. Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal.
To keep your great pretenses veiled. --Shak.
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