different between mask vs smokescreen

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??sk/
• (General American, UK) IPA^(key): /mæsk/
• Rhymes: -æsk, -??sk
• Homophones: masque, masc (some accents)

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 *mask? from which English mesh is regularly inherited. Replaced Old English gr?ma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.

Alternative forms

• masque (archaic, noun, verb)

Noun

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. A festive entertainment of dancing or other diversions, where all wear masks; a masquerade
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

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

4. 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
5. (obsolete) A dramatic performance in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters.
6. (architecture) A grotesque head or face, used to adorn keystones and other prominent parts, to spout water in fountains, and the like

   Synonym: mascaron

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

Synonyms

• vizard (archaic)

Hyponyms

• (a cover for the face): domino mask, sleep mask

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

mask (third-person singular simple present 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.
2. (transitive) To disguise; to cover; to hide.
   • 1998, Rudolf Jakhel, Modern Sports Karate: Basics of Techniques and Tactics, Meyer & Meyer Sport (?ISBN)

     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.

   • 2020, Lisa Morgan, Mary Donahue, Living with PTSD on the Autism Spectrum: Insightful Analysis with Practical Applications, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (?ISBN), page 118:

     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.

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

5. (intransitive) To take part as a masker in a masquerade.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cavendish to this entry?)

6. (intransitive) To wear a mask; to be disguised in any way.
7. (intransitive) To conceal or disguise one's autism.
   • 2018, Sally Cat, PDA by PDAers: From Anxiety to Avoidance and Masking to Meltdowns, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (?ISBN), page 86:

     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.

   • 2021, Yenn Purkis, Wenn B. Lawson, The Autistic Trans Guide to Life, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (?ISBN), page 132:

     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?

8. (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
9. (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 […]

10. (transitive, computing) To disable (an interrupt, etc.) by setting or unsetting the associated bit.

Derived terms

• maskable
• masked
• unmask

Related terms

• mascara

Translations

Etymology 2

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

Noun

mask (plural masks)

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

Etymology 3

From Middle English *mask, masch, from Old English m?x, m?sc (“mash”). Doublet of mash.

Noun

mask (plural masks)

1. (Britain dialectal) Mash.

Verb

mask (third-person singular simple present masks, present participle masking, simple past and past participle masked)

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

Etymology 4

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

Verb

mask (third-person singular simple present masks, present participle masking, simple past and past participle masked)

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

References

Anagrams

• KAMs, ma'ks, maks

Swedish

Etymology 1

From Old Swedish maþker, from Old Norse maðkr. Cognate with English mawk, Danish maddike and Finnish matikka.

Pronunciation

Noun

mask c

1. worm

Declension

Derived terms

• daggmask

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French masque.

Pronunciation

Noun

mask c

1. mask; a cover designed to disguise or protect the face

Declension

Derived terms

• maskera
• maskerad
• maskering

Anagrams

• kams, skam, smak

English

Alternative forms

• smoke screen

Etymology

From smoke +? screen.

Pronunciation

Noun

smokescreen (plural smokescreens)

1. Smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle.
   • 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 25, Part 5, p. 284,^[1]

     Ensign Whitely began to tell of the surprise encounter of Admiral Sprague’s escort-carrier force with the main battle line of the Japanese Navy off Samar, in a chaos of rain squalls and smoke screens.

2. (figuratively) Anything used metaphorically to conceal or distract.
   • 1968, Desmond Bagley, The Vivero Letter, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 8, p. 163,^[2]

     It was all very plausible and, as he poured out his smokescreen of words, I became fidgety for fear Fallon would be too direct with him.

Translations

See also

• smoke test