Obs. Also veale. [var. of VEIL sb.1, after It. and Sp. velo, L. vēlum.] A veil or covering.
α. 1580. Spenser, Three Proper Lett., i. Wks. (1912), 611. Wote ye why his Moother with a Veale hath coouered his Face? Ibid. (1591), Ruines Rome, i. Thrice hauing seene vnder the heauens veale Your toombs deuoted compasse ouer all.
1593. Harvey, Pierce’s Superer., Wks. (Grosart), II. 161. To examine matters barely, without their veales, or habiliments.
β. 1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Heb. ix. 3. After the second vele, the tabernacle. Ibid., x. 20. By the vele, that is, his flesh.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 19. In his fall his shield, that couered was, Did loose his vele by chaunce, and open flew. Ibid., II. xii. 77. [Acrasia] was arayd … All in a vele of silke and siluer thin.
1591. Savile, Tacitus, Hist., I. lxvi. 37. They … with sacred veles and infules afore them … mollified the soldiers minds.
