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death mask

American  

noun

  1. a cast taken of a person's face after death.


death mask British  

noun

  1. a cast of a person's face taken shortly after death Compare life mask

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

King Tutankhamun’s tomb, containing the pharaoh’s solid-gold inner coffin and death mask.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 16, 2026

His death mask is held at Moyse Hall and Norwich Castle.

From BBC Apr. 22, 2025

It appeared so lifelike that the effect was unsettling, as if I were looking at Bradford look at his own death mask.

From New York Times Apr. 19, 2023

“She had the death mask of her mother.”

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 10, 2023

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

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