anti-mask

Or an·ti·mask

[an-tee-mask, an-tahy-]

adjective

1. Also anti-masking being or relating to legislation prohibiting any form of concealment of the face in public.

   Between the 1920s and 1950s, more than a dozen U.S. states passed anti-mask legislation in response to activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

2. being or relating to a person or group that resists wearing a mask over the nose and mouth to prevent the spread of infection, or that opposes the mandatory wearing of such masks, as during a pandemic.

   An anti-mask protest outside our local high school triggered a precautionary lockdown at three other schools.

   You won’t win your staunchly anti-mask friends over by shaming them.

Other Word Forms

• anti-masker noun
• antimasker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of anti-mask¹

First recorded in 1915–20; anti- ( def. ) + mask ( def. )

Example Sentences

Moms For Liberty, the Florida-based advocacy group that now boasts chapters in several cities, grew out of one of the anti-mask advocacy groups that crashed school-board meetings to shout down teachers and school administrators over vaccine requirements and mask mandates.

From Salon

Moms for Liberty, which grew out of the anti-mask, anti-vax crusades of the pandemic, quickly adopted CRT as their crusade and was given credit for Glenn Youngkin's win that year.

From Salon

Allie Bohm, senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has opposed all iterations of state’s anti-mask law, argued that protesters today simply face greater repercussions for airing their beliefs: “The risks of being doxed in the digital age are qualitatively different than they used to be, and people may not feel comfortable speaking out at the risk of being identified.”

From Slate

She warned that New York’s new anti-mask law, which has a dozen co-sponsors in Albany, can also be selectively enforced by police and prosecutors against protesters.

From Slate

"Big losses across the state for candidates who advanced the group’s agenda, including efforts to ban library books and restrict lessons about race, sex and gender, pointed to mounting dissatisfaction with an organization that had quickly gained sway with powerful Republicans amid the anti-mask, parental rights politics of the pandemic," reports the Tampa Bay Times.

From Salon