veronica

plural veronicas

1. CatholicismThe image of Jesus's face believed to have been made on the cloth with which St Veronica wiped his face as he went to be crucified; or the cloth used for this.

   He wiped the lady’s martini glass, having had some trouble with a kind of veronica of lipstick, spat in it viciously, then washed it again.

   1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron

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   A veil that had wiped off the sweat of Christ? Who could possibly believe that? (…) The only true Veronica of this century was the veronica of the matador – the classic slow swing of the cape before the bull’s face, imitating that holy wiping, mocking it.

   1973, Nicholas Monsarrat, The Kapillan of Malta

2. bullfightingA circular swinging movement of the cape, used to avoid the bull.

   The cougher makes a lunge. Slothrop sweeps aside, gives him a quick veronica with his cape, sticks his foot out and trips the kid, who lies on the ground cursing

   1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

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   He stepped aside as a fight got going between an attendant and some kid by the Alkool display, hopping backwards in a practised veronica when a bottle broke, fearful for his flares.

   1989, Martin Amis, London Fields, Vintage, published 2003, page 357

3. biologyA flower of the genus Veronica, usually having blue petals.

   meadows full of wildflowers that seemed to Kit enormous, violets as big as your hand, yellow lilies and blue veronica you could shelter from the rain under

   2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 871

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   There are also (placed there by man or nature?) quite a lot of skinny fuchsias and dense veronicas, all in flower, and some kind of rather attractive grey-leaved sage.

   1978, Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea, Vintage, published 1999, page 11

present singular third person veronicas · participle present veronicaing · participle past veronicaed · past veronicaed

1. To draw a muleta over and away from a bull's face in bullfighting.

1. A female given name from Ancient Greek.

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   My own name, Veronica — an ugly enough thing I had always thought, it sounded like either the ointment or the disease — was one her great favourites. St Veronica wiped the face of Christ on the road to Calvary and He left His face on her tea towel. Or the picture of His face. It was the first-ever photograph, she said.

   2007, Anne Enright, The Gathering, Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 128

plural Veronicas

1. A surname from Spanish.