Obs. Forms: 1 wriʓels (wyrʓels), -ils, wriils, 3 wrieles, wriheles, 4 wrielys, 5 wriels (weryels). [OE. wriʓels, etc., f. wriʓ-, ppl. stem of wríon, wréon WRY v.1 + -ELS.] A covering; a veil. Also fig.

1

  In quots. a. 1225 and c. 1400 taken as a plural; see -ELS.

2

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, ci. 27. Swe swe wriʓels onwendes hie, & hie bioð onwende.

3

c. 1000.  in Assmann, Ags. Hom. (1889), 196. He þa his wriʓels ʓeopenode.

4

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 320. Of þeos six wrieles despoile þine sunne. Ibid. (a. 1275), 420 (MS. Cott. Cleopatra). Wimpel ne hefde, nouðer ne nemned hali write, ah wriheles of heuet.

5

1382.  Wyclif, Job xxiv. 8. Nakid thei leue men,… whom wederes of hillis moisten, and not hauende wrielys [L. velamen] clippe stones.

6

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxix. 61. They faren right as done weryels of ymages made of clothe, stopped with strawe.

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