death mask
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of death mask
First recorded in 1875–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
King Tut was famously discovered with his face sheathed in a gold death mask that weighed over 20 pounds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
His death mask is held at Moyse Hall and Norwich Castle.
From BBC • Apr. 22, 2025
“She had the death mask of her mother.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2023
Stepping back, seemingly mirrored profiles of Cajal himself emerge from dark sides of the drawing, traced from the shadow of his death mask.
From Scientific American • Aug. 26, 2022
That night, sitting at the foot of my bed, poking her face in so that the gauzy net was molded to her features like an awful death mask, was the black mother cat.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
