noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A carved, ornamental face, either human-like or grotesque, whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building.

Synonyms

All synonyms

mask

Etymology

From French, from Italian mascherone.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.