Strictly, the expression face mask is tautological and means "mask", because masks by definition go on the face; but it is sometimes used to mean:
- Respirator
- Among divers, diving mask
- Face mask (gridiron football), the metal grid face protecter on his helmet, and the penalizable foul of grasping it during play
Famous quotes containing the words face and/or mask:
“Ideology, politics and journalism, which luxuriate in failure, are impotent in the face of hope and joy.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“Mediocrity is the most effective mask a superior spirit can wear, because to the great majority, which is to say, to the mediocre, it will not suggest a disguise:—and yet it is precisely for their sake that he puts it on—so as not to arouse them, and, indeed, not infrequently to avoid this out of pity and benevolence.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)