TAKE THE VEIL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Take the veil

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/teɪk ðə veɪl/ Listen

noun

Veil n. (Written also vail)

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." "She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadornéd golden tresses wore."

A cover; a disguise; a mask; a pretense. "(I will) pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page."

(Bot.)

(a)

The calyptra of mosses.

(b)

A membrane connecting the margin of the pileus of a mushroom with the stalk; called also velum.

(Eccl.) A covering for a person or thing; as, a nun's veil; a paten veil; an altar veil.

(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.

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Etymology of 'Take the veil'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Take the veil" Quotes from Famous Books

... year 726 a prince named Didan settled at Oxford, and his wife Saxfrida built a nunnery there for her daughter Frideswyde, so that she could "take the veil" in her own church. As she was considered the "flower of all these parts," we could not understand why this was necessary, especially as she was sought in marriage by Algar, King of Leicester, described as "a young and spritely ...

— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor