reveal Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb make visible
    bring out; uncover; unveil.
    • Summer brings out bright clothes
    • He brings out the best in her
  2. verb make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret
    disclose; unwrap; bring out; expose; let on; discover; divulge; break; let out; give away.
    • The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold
    • The actress won't reveal how old she is
    • bring out the truth
    • he broke the news to her
    • unwrap the evidence in the murder case
  3. verb disclose directly or through prophets
    • God rarely reveal his plans for Mankind

WordNet


Re*veal" transitive verb
Etymology
F. révéler, L. revelare, revelatum, to unveil, reveal; pref. re- re- + velare to veil; fr. velum a veil. See Veil.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Revealed ; present participle & verbal noun Revealing
Definitions
  1. To make known (that which has been concealed or kept secret); to unveil; to disclose; to show.
    Light was the wound, the prince's care unknown, She might not, would not, yet reveal her own. Waller.
  2. Specifically, to communicate (that which could not be known or discovered without divine or supernatural instruction or agency). Syn. -- To communicate; disclose; divulge; unveil; uncover; open; discover; impart; show. See Communicate. -- Reveal, Divulge. To reveal is literally to lift the veil, and thus make known what was previously concealed; to divulge is to scatter abroad among the people, or make publicly known. A mystery or hidden doctrine may be revealed; something long confined to the knowledge of a few is at length divulged. "Time, which reveals all things, is itself not to be discovered." Locke. "A tragic history of facts divulged." Wordsworth.
Re*veal" noun
Definitions
  1. A revealing; a disclosure. Obs.
  2. (Arch.) The side of an opening for a window, doorway, or the like, between the door frame or window frame and the outer surface of the wall; or, where the opening is not filled with a door, etc., the whole thickness of the wall; the jamb. Written also revel.

Webster 1913