• (RP) IPA: /mɑːsk/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA: /mask/
• (America) IPA: /mæsk/

Borrowed from Middle French masque, from Italian maschera, from (a byform of, see it for more) Medieval Latin masca, mascha, a borrowing of Proto-West Germanic *maskā from which English mesh is regularly inherited.

Replaced Old English grīma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.

Compare also Hebrew מַסֵּכָה.

mask (plural masks)

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. That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge.
3. (poetic) Appearance, likeness.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XVIII, page 30 ↗:

     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.

4. A festive entertainment of dancing or other diversions, where all wear masks; a masquerade.
   • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask.

5. A person wearing a mask.
   • 1880, George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life:

     the mask that has the arm of the Indian queen

6. (obsolete) A dramatic performance in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters.
7. (architecture) A grotesque head or face, used to adorn keystones and other prominent parts, to spout water in fountains, and the like.

   Synonyms: mascaron

8. (fortification) In a permanent fortification, a redoubt which protects the caponiere.
9. (fortification) A screen for a battery.
10. (zoology) The lower lip of the larva of a dragonfly, modified so as to form a prehensile organ.
11. (publishing, film) A flat covering used to block off an unwanted portion of a scene or image.
12. (computing, programming) A pattern of bits used in bitwise operations; bitmask.
13. (computer graphics) A two-color (black and white) bitmap generated from an image, used to create transparency in the image.
14. (heraldry) The head of a fox, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.

• vizard (archaic)

• French: masque
• German: Maske
• Italian: maschera, mascherina
• Portuguese: máscara
• Russian: ма́ска
• Spanish: máscara, mascarilla, antifaz, cambuj, gambux

• German: Maske
• Italian: maschera
• Portuguese: máscara
• Russian: ма́ска

• Portuguese: mascarada
• Russian: ма́ска

• Portuguese: mascarada
• Spanish: mascarada

• Spanish: máscara

• Portuguese: máscara
• Spanish: capa

mask (masks, present participle masking; simple past and past participle masked)

1. (transitive) To cover (the face or something else), in order to conceal the identity or protect against injury; to cover with a mask or visor.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene vi]:

     They must all be masked and vizarded

2. (transitive) To disguise as something else.
3. (transitive) To conceal from view or knowledge; to cover; to hide.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     Masking the business from the common eye

4. (transitive, military) To conceal; also, to intervene in the line of.
5. (transitive, military) To cover or keep in check.

   to mask a body of troops or a fortess by a superior force, while some hostile evolution is being carried out

6. (intransitive) To take part as a masker in a masquerade.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene v]:

     Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,
     Some five and twenty years, and then we mask’d.

   • 1641, George Cavendish, Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe:

     noble Gentilmen / who daunced & masked wt thes fayer ladyes & gentillwomen

7. (intransitive) To wear a mask.
8. (intransitive, obsolete) To disguise oneself, to be disguised in any way.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii ↗:

     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.

9. (intransitive) To conceal or disguise one's autism.
10. (transitive) 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
11. (transitive, computing) To set or unset (certain bits, or binary digits, within a value) by means of a bitmask.
    • 1993, Richard E. Haskell, Introduction to computer engineering, page 287:

      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 […]

12. (transitive, computing) To disable (an interrupt, etc.) by setting or unsetting the associated bit.
13. (psychology, of an autistic person) To learn, practice, and perform certain behaviors and suppress others in order to appear more neurotypical.
    • 2020, Sarah Kurchak, I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, unnumbered page ↗:

      Masking can leave a person with less energy to handle other aspects of their day, from performing basic housework to processing thoughts and feelings.

    • 2021, Felicity Sedgewick, Laura Hull, Helen Ellis, Autism and Masking: How and Why People Do It, and the Impact It Can Have, page 220 ↗:

      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.

    • 2022, Hannah Louise Belcher, Taking Off the Mask: Practical Exercises to Help Understand and Minimise the Effects of Autistic Camouflaging, page 80 ↗:

      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".

• mascara

• German: maskieren
• Spanish: enmascarar

• German: maskieren
• Italian: mascherare
• Spanish: cubrir

• German: maskieren

From Middle English maske, from Old English max, masċ, from Proto-West Germanic *maskā.

mask (plural masks)

1. mesh
2. (UK dialectal, Scotland) The mesh of a net; a net; net-bag.

From Middle English *mask, masch, from Old English māx, māsc ("mash").

mask (plural masks)

1. (UK dialectal) Mash.

mask (masks, present participle masking; simple past and past participle masked)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal) To mash.
2. (transitive, UK dialectal) (brewing) To mix malt with hot water to yield wort.
3. (transitive, Scotland dialectal) To be infused or steeped.
4. (UK dialectal, Scotland) To prepare tea in a teapot; alternative to brew.

From Middle English masken, short for *maskeren, malskren ("to bewilder; be confused, wander").

mask (masks, present participle masking; simple past and past participle masked)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal) To bewilder; confuse.