maskings

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
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
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