masking

Noun

masking (countable and uncountable, plural maskings)

1. The act by which something is masked; the act of masking, of concealing or disguising.
   • “To function effectively in any social situation,” writes Booth, “we all engage in masking of one kind or another: we do some prettying up: we adorn, […]"2017, Robert D. Denham, Northrop Frye and Others: The Order of Words, University of Ottawa Press, →ISBN
   • African Americans, particularly those who have to work and live in predominantly white spaces, also engage in masking.2017, Eddie S. Glaude, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, NY: Crown Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 61
2. An entertainment at which the guests conceal their faces with masks.
   • The vassals or tenants collected in the hall for Christmas masking and mumming—the peasant gathering that May-day called out upon the green, drew together ranks whose distance, in our day, occasions forgetfulness on one side, and discontent on the other.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 280–281
   • Such things, maskings, and disguisings, and dressing up, sometimes in incredible and wild fashions, are all part of the fun of carnival.1984, John Norman, Players of Gor
3. The practice of wearing safety masks, such as face masks.
   • For millions of American lives touched by the coronavirus, it was too late to correct the failure to stand up protocols for masking and social distancing, testing and contact-tracing. But negative consequences of the culture war around the pandemic could still lie ahead, damaging the national...2020 November 20, Tom McCarthy, “Republican officials finally forced into action on Covid-19 as reality bites”, in The Guardian