masque

Etymology

Borrowed from French masque.

noun

1. (historical, in 16th- and 17th-century England and Europe) A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song.
2. Words and music written for a masque.
   Over six sections – a prologue, a life-story, a dream-quest, a dirge, a masque and an epilogue – they meditate on their lives, their hopes, their losses, and on the human condition. 2010-04-09, Glyn Maxwell, “WH Auden's ‘The Age of Anxiety’”, in The Guardian
3. A masquerade.
4. Archaic form of mask.
5. A facial mask.
   mud masque; clay masque

verb

1. Archaic form of mask.
   It is even masqued by that sort of good-humoured air that at heart he resents his impressment. 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.