Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mask \Mask\ (m[.a]sk), n. [F. masque, LL. masca, mascha, mascus; cf. Sp. & Pg. m['a]scara, It. maschera; all fr. Ar. maskharat buffoon, fool, pleasantry, anything ridiculous or mirthful, fr. sakhira to ridicule, to laugh at. Cf. Masque, Masquerade.]
A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection; as, a dancer's mask; a fencer's mask; a ball player's mask.
That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge.
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A festive entertainment of dancing or other diversions, where all wear masks; a masquerade; hence, a revel; a frolic; a delusive show.
--Bacon.This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask.
--Milton. A dramatic performance, formerly in vogue, in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters.
(Arch.) A grotesque head or face, used to adorn keystones and other prominent parts, to spout water in fountains, and the like; -- called also mascaron.
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(Fort.)
In a permanent fortification, a redoubt which protects the caponiere.
A screen for a battery.
(Zo["o]l.) The lower lip of the larva of a dragon fly, modified so as to form a prehensile organ.
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A person wearing a mask; a masker.
The mask that has the arm of the Indian queen.
--G. W. Cable. -
(Sporting) The head or face of a fox.
Mask house, a house for masquerades. [Obs.]
Death mask, a cast of the face of a dead person.
Wiktionary
n. A plaster or similar cast of a person's face after death.
WordNet
n. a cast taken from the face of a dead person
Wikipedia
A death mask is a metallic, wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It is sometimes possible to identify portraits that have been painted from death masks, because of the characteristic slight distortions of the features caused by the weight of the plaster during the making of the mold. In other cultures a death mask may be a funeral mask, an image placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites, and normally buried with him. The best known of these are the masks used by ancient Egyptians as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamun's mask, and those from Mycenean Greece such as the Mask of Agamemnon.
In the 10th century in some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals; the coffin portrait was an alternative. Mourning portraits were also painted, showing the subject lying in repose. During the 18th and 19th centuries masks were also used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was later replaced by post-mortem photography.
In the cases of people whose faces were damaged by their death, it was common to take casts of their hands. An example of this occurred in the case of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Canadian statesman whose face was shattered by the bullet which assassinated him in 1868.
When taken from a living subject, such a cast is called a life mask. Proponents of phrenology used both death masks and life masks for pseudoscientific purposes.
"Death Mask" is the seventh episode of the second season of the television series Rome. It aired on March 4, 2007.
Usage examples of "death mask".
The lazar regarded him without pity, its face smooth, cold, frozen in its death mask.
From what I've seen at Norfolk it's not much of a joke: the stuff has got to be pushed right into the corners of the eyes and under the lashes, it wouldn't have made Xingyu feel any better to know what the Japanese was actually doing: he was making a death mask.
Liath saw clearly the resemblance in her stern features to that of her grandfather's death mask, rendered in stone in the chapel at Autun.