1590 R. Greene Neuer too Late i. 17 The Maides in Rome durst not looke at Venus Temple till they were thirtie, nor went they vnmasked till they were maried.

1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. viii. sig. I^v Diseased eyes indure not an vnmasked Sunne.

1679 in London Gaz. No. 1406/1 The unmasked Boldness of such as durst openly..assemble themselves together, to Kill..the Primate.

1785 W. Cowper Task ii. 695 They..in th' end, disclose a face That would have shock'd credulity herself, Unmask'd.

1855 E. B. Pusey Doctr. Real Presence 717 An universal suppression of the truths..and the unmasked substitution of falsehood.

1894 Times 22 Oct. 5/4 At noon yesterday four unmasked men ‘held up’ a Texas Pacific train near that place.

1908 Drill Regulations for Field Artillery (U.S. Army) iii. v. 109 When no concealment is afforded, the guns are said to be in an unmasked position, and the fire is referred to as unmasked fire.

1962 Pop. Mech. July 159/2 Apply the whitener or the polish to whichever is the unmasked area.

1978 B. Scharf in E. C. Carterette & M. P. Friedman Hearing vi. 216 The loudness level of the masked tone, measured by matching it to the unmasked tone of the same frequency, is the parameter.

2000 Ad-issues Jan. 2/1 It [sc. advertising] has often been seen as the unmasked face of ruthless capitalism.

1671 A. Woodhead Considerations Council of Trent i. 2 A late Protestant Writer, saith of him, ‘That He hath done more disservice to the Church of Rome by his Answer, than ever Father Paul [the unmasked Pietro Soave] did with his History’.

1795 P. Will tr. C. Tschink Victim Magical Delusion II. 13 Enraptured at the idea of treating the unmasked impostor with that humiliating contempt which he so well deserved.

1836 Sc. Ann. 41 ‘No, my dear judge,’ replied the masked figure, taking off his mask... Conceive the astonishment of all but Bolesia, on discovering the unmasked face of Bronislaw.

1878 S. J. MacKenna Brave Men in Action 126 They, too, had gone through and over the suddenly unmasked lines of guns and infantry.

1905 H. C. S. Wright With Togo ix. 164 From the darkness of the Japanese position broke forth tongues of fire, and the roar of the unmasked guns was awful as they poured forth a hail of shell into the Russian lines.

1942 Bks. Abroad 16 97/1 The unmasked renegade tries to whitewash himself when facing his shocked wife.

2014 Irish Times (Nexis) 28 Feb. 13 During the final act, the unmasked villain finally explains the irrational rationale behind the plot.