Veil  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Wikipedia Wiktionary Wiki Commons Tumblr Wikisource YouTube Shop Featured: A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)

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 diaphanous material, to hide or protect the face.
   • 2007. Zerzan, John. Silence. p. 4.

     Beckett complains that "in the forest of symbols" there is never quiet, and longs to break through the veil of language to silence.

2. A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.

A veil is an article of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, that is intended to cover some part of the head or face. As a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an object or space.

See also

• Dance of the Seven Veils
• The wearing of veils by Muslim women has raised political issues in the West in the 2000s