GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 7 definitions
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Vail (vāl), n. & v. t. Same as Veil. [Obs.]
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Vail, n. [Aphetic form of avail, n.]
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1. Avails; profit; return; proceeds. [Obs.]
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My house is as 'twere the cave where the young outlaw hoards the stolen vails of his occupation. Chapman.
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2. An unexpected gain or acquisition; a casual advantage or benefit; a windfall. [Obs.]
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3. Money given to servants by visitors; a gratuity; -- usually in the plural. [Written also vale.] Dryden.
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Vail, v. t. [Aphetic form of avale. See Avale, Vale.] [Written also vale, and veil.]
1. To let fall; to allow or cause to sink. [Obs.]
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Vail your regard
Upon a wronged, I would fain have said, a maid! Shak.
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2. To lower, or take off, in token of inferiority, reverence, submission, or the like.
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France must vail her lofty-plumed crest! Shak.
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Without vailing his bonnet or testifying any reverence for the alleged sanctity of the relic. Sir. W. Scott.
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Vail (vāl), v. i. To yield or recede; to give place; to show respect by yielding, uncovering, or the like. [Written also vale, and veil.] [Obs.]
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Thy convenience must vail to thy neighbor's necessity. South.
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Vail, n. Submission; decline; descent. [Obs.]
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Veil (vāl), n. [OE. veile, OF. veile, F. voile, L. velum a sail, covering, curtain, veil, probably fr. vehere to bear, carry, and thus originally, that which bears the ship on. See Vehicle, and cf. Reveal.] [Written also vail.]
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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.
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The veil of the temple was rent in twain. Matt. xxvii. 51.
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She, as a veil down to the slender waist,
Her unadornéd golden tresses wore. Milton.
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2. A cover; a disguise; a mask; a pretense.
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[I will] pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page. Shak.
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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.
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4. (Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing; as, “a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil.”
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5. (Zool.) Same as Velum, 3.
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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.
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Veil (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Veiled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Veiling.] [Cf. OF. veler, F. voiler, L. velarc. See Veil, n.] [Written also vail.]
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1. To throw a veil over; to cover with a veil.
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Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight,
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined. Milton.
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2. Fig.: To invest; to cover; to hide; to conceal.
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To keep your great pretenses veiled. Shak.
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