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Mask

//mɑːsk// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun

1
A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection.
"a dancer's mask; a fencer's mask; a ball player's mask"
2
Mesh.
3
Mash. UK, dialectal
4
activity that tries to conceal something wordnet
5
That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge.
"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."

Show 16 more definitions

6
The mesh of a net; a net; net-bag. Scotland, UK, dialectal
7
a covering to disguise or conceal the face wordnet
8
Appearance, likeness. poetic
"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."
9
a protective covering worn over the face wordnet
10
A festive entertainment of dancing or other diversions, where all wear masks; a masquerade.
"This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask."
11
a party of guests wearing costumes and masks wordnet
12
A person wearing a mask.
"the mask that has the arm of the Indian queen"
13
A dramatic performance in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters. obsolete
14
A grotesque head or face, used to adorn keystones and other prominent parts, to spout water in fountains, and the like.
15
In a permanent fortification, a redoubt which protects the caponiere.
16
A screen for a battery.
17
The lower lip of the larva of a dragonfly, modified so as to form a prehensile organ.
18
A flat covering used to block off an unwanted portion of a scene or image.
19
A pattern of bits used in bitwise operations; bitmask.
20
A two-color (black and white) bitmap generated from an image, used to create transparency in the image.
21
The head of a fox, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.

Verb

1
To cover (the face or something else), in order to conceal the identity or protect against injury; to cover with a mask or visor. transitive
"They must all be masked and vizarded"
2
To mash. UK, dialectal, transitive
3
To bewilder; confuse. UK, dialectal, transitive
4
put a mask on or cover with a mask wordnet
5
To disguise as something else. transitive

Show 18 more definitions

6
(brewing) To mix malt with hot water to yield wort. UK, dialectal, transitive
7
shield from light wordnet
8
To conceal from view or knowledge; to cover; to hide. transitive
"Masking the business from the common eye"
9
To be infused or steeped. Cumbria, Durham, Geordie, Northumbria, Scotland, dialectal, transitive
10
cover with a sauce wordnet
11
To conceal; also, to intervene in the line of. transitive
12
To prepare tea in a teapot; alternative to brew. Cumbria, Durham, Geordie, Northumbria, Scotland, UK, dialectal
13
hide under a false appearance wordnet
14
To cover or keep in check. transitive
"to mask a body of troops or a fortess by a superior force, while some hostile evolution is being carried out"
15
To prepare (to storm). Northern-England, Scotland, rare
"I saw the storm was masking fast, That soon wad fa' on me;[…]"
16
make unrecognizable wordnet
17
To take part as a masker in a masquerade. intransitive
"Come Pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five and twenty years, and then we mask’d."
18
To wear a mask. intransitive
"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.”"
19
To disguise oneself, to be disguised in any way. intransitive, obsolete
"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."
20
To conceal or disguise one's autism; to learn, practice, and perform certain behaviors and suppress others in order to appear more neurotypical. intransitive
"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."
21
To cover or shield a part of a design or picture in order to prevent reproduction or to safeguard the surface from the colors used when working with an air brush or painting. transitive
22
To set or unset (certain bits, or binary digits, within a value) by means of a bitmask. transitive
"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[…]"
23
To disable (an interrupt, etc.) by setting or unsetting the associated bit. transitive
"Some hardware interrupts can be masked, or disabled; that is, the CPU is told to ignore them."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

From Middle English maske, from Old English max, masċ (“net”), from Proto-West Germanic *maskā (“mesh, netting, mask”). Doublet of mesh and mask above.

Etymology 4

From Middle English *mask, masch, from Old English māx, māsc (“mash”). Doublet of mash.

Etymology 5

From Middle English *mask, masch, from Old English māx, māsc (“mash”). Doublet of mash.

Etymology 6

From Middle English masken, short for *maskeren, malskren (“to bewilder; be confused, wander”). More at masker.

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