mask
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: architecture
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engineering
film
fortification
fortifications
government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
mathematics
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natural-sciences
nobility
physical-sciences
politics
programming
publishing
sciences
television
war
zoology
Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French masque (“a covering to hide or protect the face”), from Italian maschera (“mask, disguise”), from (a byform of, see it for more) Medieval Latin masca, mascha, a borrowing of Proto-West Germanic *maskā, from which English mesh and mask (“mesh”) (below at Etymology 2) are inherited. Doublet of masque and mesh.
Replaced Old English grīma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.
Inflected forms:
form: masks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: masque
pos: noun
tags: alternative
archaic
form: masks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: masking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: masked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: masked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: masque
pos: verb
tags: alternative
archaic
Senses:
gloss: A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection.
pos: noun
examples: a dancer's mask; a fencer's mask; a ball player's mask
Just a few days ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the CDC—issued new mask guidelines.
Under these new guidelines, most Americans in most of the country can now be mask free.
And based on the projections, more of the country will reach that point across the next couple of weeks.
gloss: That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge.
pos: noun
examples: Grouchy and wary and tender, he’s a sozzled hedonist seemingly out for himself—though his party-animal facade is just a mask for his bottomless generosity.
gloss: Appearance, likeness.
pos: noun
tags: poetic
examples: Come then, pure hands, and bear the head
⁠That sleeps or wears the mask of sleep,
⁠And come, whatever loves to weep,
And hear the ritual of the dead.
gloss: A festive entertainment of dancing or other diversions, where all wear masks; a masquerade.
pos: noun
examples: This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask.
gloss: A person wearing a mask.
pos: noun
examples: the mask that has the arm of the Indian queen
Jones, now taking the mask by the hand, fell to entreating her in the most earnest manner, to acquaint him where he might find Sophia; and when he could obtain no direct answer, he began to upbraid her gently […]
gloss: A dramatic performance in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: A grotesque head or face, used to adorn keystones and other prominent parts, to spout water in fountains, and the like.
pos: noun
gloss: In a permanent fortification, a redoubt which protects the caponiere.
pos: noun
gloss: A screen for a battery.
pos: noun
gloss: The lower lip of the larva of a dragonfly, modified so as to form a prehensile organ.
pos: noun
gloss: A flat covering used to block off an unwanted portion of a scene or image.
pos: noun
gloss: A pattern of bits used in bitwise operations; bitmask.
pos: noun
gloss: A two-color (black and white) bitmap generated from an image, used to create transparency in the image.
pos: noun
gloss: The head of a fox, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
pos: noun
gloss: To cover (the face or something else), in order to conceal the identity or protect against injury; to cover with a mask or visor.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They must all be masked and vizarded
gloss: To disguise as something else.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To conceal from view or knowledge; to cover; to hide.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Masking the business from the common eye
The opponent must not be able to recognize when we inhale and when we exhale. We achieve this by breathing with the diaphragm and we do not raise the shoulders while breathing. In particular we must mask when we are out of breath.
Many autistic people have language and cognitive skills; [and] they mask their autism, cover up social discomfort, and work hard to be someone they are not, so people often see them as “fitting in” just fine.
gloss: To conceal; also, to intervene in the line of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To cover or keep in check.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to mask a body of troops or a fortess by a superior force, while some hostile evolution is being carried out
gloss: To take part as a masker in a masquerade.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,
Some five and twenty years, and then we mask’d.
noble Gentilmen / who daunced & masked wt thes fayer ladyes & gentillwomen
gloss: To put on a mask; to wear a mask.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Dr. Shelita Dattani, director of professional affairs at the Canadian Pharmacists Association, says […]. “The efforts that we’re taking to reduce the spread of COVID are working … people are masking and distancing and staying away from each other and using hand hygiene, so I think all of these efforts combined are contributing to lower rates.”
gloss: To disguise oneself, to be disguised in any way.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: Ioue sometime maſked in a ſhepheards weede,
And by thoſe ſteps that he hath ſcal’d the heauens,
May we become immortall like the Gods.
gloss: To conceal or disguise one's neurodivergence, especially autism; to learn, practice, and perform certain behaviors and suppress others in order to appear more neurotypical.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Masking is exhausting and some autistics require copious amounts of time afterwards to recover from hiding who they are and pretending to be someone they aren't. Even when autistics mask they don't always pass fully as an NT person.
Masking can leave a person with less energy to handle other aspects of their day, from performing basic housework to processing thoughts and feelings.
So, masking seems to be a very poor explanation for the difference in gender diagnosis of autism. In particular, masking requires theory of mind. How can autistic people successfully mask if they struggle with this ability?
Some group members describe masking during therapy in order to seem more likeable to the therapist, or because they felt it necessary in order to be seen as engaging with the support.
Kayleigh, who was finally diagnosed at 18, felt that she masked a lot growing up because she "always felt different and was bullied if [she] showed it both at home and in school".
gloss: To cover or shield something, or a portion of something, so as to prevent reproduction or to safeguard the surface from the colors used when working with an air brush or painting.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To set or unset (certain bits, or binary digits, within a value) by means of a bitmask.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero. This is because ANDing anything with a zero produces a zero, while ANDing any bit with a 1 leaves the bit unchanged[…]
gloss: To disable (an interrupt, etc.) by setting or unsetting the associated bit.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Some hardware interrupts can be masked, or disabled; that is, the CPU is told to ignore them.
Synonyms: vizard
Related words: mascara
masking tape
masquerade
Derived words: antimask
anti-mask
antimasker
bag valve mask
bar mask
beard mask
bemask
birdcage mask
catcher's mask
comedy mask
deathmask
death mask
demask
dismask
diving mask
domino mask
drama mask
dust mask
eye mask
eyemask
face mask
facemask
facial mask
filemask
finger mask
flu mask
gas mask
gasmask
hair mask
half mask
half-mask
Hannibal Lecter mask
hostmask
immask
Jason mask
keymask
life mask
lion mask
maskability
mask acne
maskee
maskery
maskette
maskfish
maskful
maskhole
mask house
maskless
masklike
maskmaker
maskne
mask-off moment
mask of pregnancy
mask shell
masktard
maskurbator
mask work
Nablus mask-like facial syndrome
nanomask
nano mask
netmask
oxygen mask
paint mask
Parkinson's mask
photomask
pregnancy mask
procedure mask
pro-mask
promask
pro-masker
remask
riot mask
SARS mask
screen mask
shadow mask
sheet mask
ski mask
sleep mask
slitmask
softmask
solder mask
spit mask
surgical mask
take the mask off
tragedy mask
war-mask
maskable
masked
mask off
mask up
unmask
Translations:
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 蒙版
roman: méngbǎn
lang: Finnish
word: maski
lang: Portuguese
word: máscara
lang: Spanish
word: capa
lang: Swedish
word: genomskinlighetsmask
lang: Bulgarian
word: маскирам се
roman: maskiram se
lang: Catalan
word: emmascarar
lang: Dutch
word: maskeren
lang: Finnish
word: peittää
lang: Finnish
word: naamioida
lang: German
word: maskieren
lang: Icelandic
word: gríma
lang: Māori
word: hīpoki
lang: Romanian
word: masca
lang: Spanish
word: enmascarar