Showing results for death mask. Search instead for death+mask.

death mask

American

noun

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

death mask British

noun

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:

death mask

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

He maintained that King Tut had inherited a suite of lavish burial equipment that had then been repurposed to accompany him into the afterlife, including his famous gold death mask.

From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2022

And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape’s face was like a death mask.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023