death mask
3
8.3
- noun
- /dɛθ mæsɪk/
- After the artist passed away, a renowned art studio produced a death mask to preserve his likeness for posterity.
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Watch on YouTubeAnd if you open that up, what you would see would be row after row of wax death masks.
- And if you open that up, what you would see would be row after row of wax death masks.
- They just saw this face, this death mask perfectly imprinted on their couch.
Examples
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It's a death mask, beautiful in its pure lines of granite.
Fiction book (1995) -
The likenesses of the Day School boys had been immortalized with as much dignity and pomp as the golden death masks of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs.
Academic text (2003) -
I just made a copy of his death mask.
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Is this your first death mask?
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At that moment, I saw a black death mask on the white background.
Fiction book (1999) -
Her face reminds me of a death mask.
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There was a death mask in the movie Gorky Park.
Fiction book (1995) -
And I don't want the last memory of her to be some gruesome death mask.
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They're called death masks because hospitals and morgues sometimes use them to help identify accident victims who are unrecognizable.
Fiction book (1995) -
The museum displayed an impressive collection of ancient death masks, showcasing the artistry of different cultures.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'death mask' clearly links 'death' and 'mask', so a learner who knows the words will infer it is a mask related to death or a dead person. However, the specific, technical sense — a cast or impression of a deceased person's face used as a memento or artwork — is a cultural/artistic use that may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Death mask is simply a mask made after death: people made a plaster cast of a person's face right after they died to keep the exact look. Artists used these casts as a reference and families kept them as a 'memento', so today death mask means 'a cast made of a dead person's face'.