| Definitions | | mask |
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noun
- A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection
- a dancer's ; a fencer's ; a ball player's
- That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge.
- A festive entertainment of dancing or other diversions, where all wear masks; a masquerade; hence, a revel; a frolic; a delusive show - Bacon
- Milton:
- : This thought might lead me through the world's vain .
- (obsolete) A dramatic performance, formerly in vogue, in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters.
- (architecture) A grotesque head or face, used to adorn keystones and other prominent parts, to spout water in fountains, and the like; -- called also mascaron.
- (context, fortification) In a permanent fortification, a redoubt which protects the caponiere.
- (context, fortification) A screen for a battery
- (zoology) The lower lip of the larva of a dragon fly, modified so as to form a prehensile organ.
verb
- (transitive) To cover, as the face, by way of concealment or defense against injury; to conceal with a mask or visor.
- Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, IV,vi:
- : They must all be masked and vizarded
- (transitive) To disguise; to cover; to hide.
- Shakespeare, Macbeth, III-i:
- : Masking the business from the common eye
- (military, transitive) To conceal; also, to intervene in the line of.
- (military, transitive) To cover or keep in check
- to a body of troops or a fortess by a superior force, while some hostile evolution is being carried out
- (intransitive) To take part as a masker in a masquerade - Cavendish
- (intransitive) To wear a mask; to be disguised in any way - Shakespeare
Etymology: masque, from Italian maschera (compare Late Latin masca, mascha, mascus, Spanish and Portuguese míscara, German Maske); perhaps from Arabic Ù (maskhara(t)) "buffoon, fool, pleasantry, anything ridiculous", from (sakhira) to ridicule, to laugh at. Compare masque, masquerade
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Full Definition of mask
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