When a threat, warning, criticism, or reference is **veiled**, the speaker did not say the real thing out loud — but you can still feel it. The meaning is covered up, the way a thin cloth covers a face: you see the shape, not the details. The key idea is that it is *on purpose*. A veiled threat is not an unclear threat; it is a threat the speaker deliberately wrapped up so they can deny it later. "It would be a shame if something happened to your shop" — nobody said they would break your window, but everyone in the room understood. Most common partners: - **a veiled threat** — the classic one, by far. - **a veiled criticism / veiled attack** — you insult someone without naming them. - **a veiled reference to something** — you point at a thing without saying its name. - **thinly veiled** — very common, and it means the covering is so thin that everyone can see straight through it. "a thinly veiled attack on the mayor" = it obviously was an attack on the mayor. Notice that *thinly veiled* is almost a joke at the speaker's expense: they tried to hide it and failed. So there is often a small note of "who do you think you're fooling?" The word also keeps its plain physical meaning — *a veiled face*, *veiled in mist* — and that picture is where the feeling comes from. But when your dictionary is talking about threats and warnings, this hidden-meaning sense is the one you want. Register: neutral to slightly formal. Very common in news and opinion writing, and normal in careful speech.

（威脅、批評、指涉）拐彎抹角的、話中帶話的、隱晦的；thinly veiled 幾乎等於「明眼人都看得出來的」（如「拙劣掩飾的攻擊」）