Veiled

ppl. a. [f. VEIL v. or sb.¹]

  1.  Covered with or wearing a veil; shrouded in a veil.

1593.  Marlowe, trans. Lucan, I. 597. The Nunnes And their vaild Matron, who alone might view Mineruas statue.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., II. i. 231. Our veyl’d Dames Commit the Warre of White and Damaske In their nicely gawded Cheekes.

1614.  J. Davies (Heref.), Eclogue, 33 Wks. (Grosart), II. 19/2. Than vp (sad swaine) pull fro thy vailed cheeke Hur prop, thy palme.

1815.  Shelley, Alastor, 151. He dreamed a veiled maid Sate near him. Ibid. (1820), Prometh. Unb., II. iv. 1. What veiled form sits on that ebon throne?

1851.  Ruskin, in Collingwood, Life (1900), 129. Those veiled vestals and prancing Amazons … will all be forgotten.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, iii. No one recognised the veiled figure.

  b.  poet. Of the eyes.

1817.  Shelley, Pr. Athan., I. 99. ’Tis the shadow of a dream Which the veiled eye of Memory never saw. Ibid. (1821), Adonais, ii. With veiled eyes, ’Mid listening Echoes, in her Paradise She sate.

  c.  Bot. Having a velum; velate.

1793.  Martyn, Lang. Bot., s.v. Calyptra, In this sense Euonymus is said to be calyptred, calyptrate or veiled.

1866.  in Treas. Bot.

  2.  Concealed, covered, hidden, as if by a veil; obscure, unrevealed.

1612.  T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 1. The vailed knowledge of the law.

1674.  Boyle, Excell. Theol., I. i. 49. A close and critical account of the more vailed and pregnant parts of Scripture.

1821.  Shelley, Epipsych., 26. Seraph of Heaven!… Veiled Glory of this lampless Universe!

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-Bks., II. 119. Returning the inquirer’s thoughts and veiled recollections to himself, as answers to his queries.

1878.  J. P. Hopps, Rel. & Moral Lect., xiii. 42. On the one hand, all the masks will drop off; and, on the other hand, all the veiled goodness will appear.

  b.  fig. Covert, disguised; not openly declared, expressed, or stated.

1875.  E. White, Life in Christ, II. x. (1878), 105. There is a wide difference between a veiled promise and a veiled threatening.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, v. The scarcely veiled sneer which marked his tone of voice.

1899.  Aldenham, Colloq. Currency (1900), 316. The Imperfect or Veiled Bimetallism such as that practised under the Bank Act of 1844.

  3.  † a. Of sight: Dim, indistinct. Obs.

1633.  P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VI. lxv. Why do we … With curious labour, dimme and vailed sight, Prie in the nature of this King and Queen?

  b.  Of sound, the voice, etc.: Indistinct, muffled, obscure.

1834.  T. Forbes, Laennec’s Dis. Chest (ed. 4). 35. It sometimes also presents a further modification, which I call the veiled puff (souffle voilé). In this case, it seems to us as if every vibration of the voice … agitates a sort of moveable veil interposed between the excavation and the ear.

1884.  Grove’s Dict. Music, IV. 235. Veiled Voice … A voice is said to be veiled when it is not clear, but sounding as if it passed through some interposed medium.

1897.  Daily News, 10 Dec., 7/4. Jenny Lind’s Veiled Voice.

1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 871. The heart-sounds become veiled and impure.

  c.  Photogr. Of a negative: Lacking clearness or distinctness; dim.

1892.  Photogr. Ann., II. 477. Isochromatic and other very sensitive plates requiring the greatest possible protection during development, to avoid veiled negatives.

  Hence Veiledly adv., Veiledness.

1874.  P. E. Pusey, trans. Cyril’s Comm. John, 638. Christ speaks to them veiledly, not applying open conviction but mingled with gentle speech.

1879.  C. & Mary Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Key, 690. In the ‘Sonnets,’ there is the same spirit of modesty … with the utmost veiledness of diction.

1881.  E. Arnold, Indian Poetry, 73. Blue lotus-blooms, seen veiledly Under the wave.

1929.  Mary Siegrist, in Selma Times-Journal, 18 April, 3/2.