demask

Verb

demask (third-person singular simple present demasks, present participle demasking, simple past and past participle demasked)

1. (transitive) To clear etchant and maskant from (a part being chemically etched or milled).
   • The part is etched at a predetermined rate, then rinsed, demasked, and a final rinse is given.1958, John I. Thompson and Company, ARDC Production Design Handbook, pages 20-2
   • If, however, a large area is pin-holed the part should be demasked and re-coated after remedial action has been taken on the maskant or the application plant.1976, William T. Harris, Chemical Milling: The Technology of Cutting Materials by Etching, page 37
2. (broadly) To remove any masking materials that have been added to protect an area.
   • The first sequence is to mask, paint, bake, then demask; the second sequence is to mask, paint, demask, then bake.1986, Donatas Satas, Plastics Finishing and Decoration, page 144
   • Tools specifically designed to assist in determining when it is safe to demask inside facilities that had chemical and/or biological contamination drawn in through the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems should be created.2006, Barry R. Schneider, Jim A. Davis, Avoiding the Abyss: Progress, Shortfalls, and the Way Ahead in Combating the WMD Threat, page 219
3. To reveal (something that was masked or hidden); to expose; to unmask.
   • When it was learned that the antigen is heatstable, attempts were made to "demask" it in the fresh mucosa by boiling.1946, Journal of Immunology, page 134
   • Its only purpose is to encourage individuals to "demask" all those, persons or institutions, who lag behind in the "battle of production," or those who do not fully adhere to the current party line, or, in general, to denounce all mistakes, deficiencies and shortcomings in the "building of...1956, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities, Soviet Total War: "historic Mission" of Violence and Deceit, page 568
4. (more specifically) To overcome ideological preconceptions and labels.
   • Marxists have always attempted to demask earlier legitimations of power as ideology by interpreting them as expressions of class interest.1980, Revue internationale de philosophie - Issues 131-134, page 219
   • It can assist us in the type of iterative questioning that is needed to demask the politics of research by unsettling simplistic oppositions.2007, Cameron McCarthy, Globalizing Cultural Studies, page 71
5. To make salient or conspicuous; to draw attention to or improve the perception of.
   • They wished to demask hidden metaphysics, to demask the false pretenses of sentences purportively descriptive but de facto metaphysical or evaluative.1968, Gerard Radnitzky, Contemporary Schools of Metascience, page 114
   • When it it that one may need to demask information inherent in a pixelated image?2016, Talis Bachmann, Perception of Pixelated Images, page 51