mimic
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Latin mīmicus, from Ancient Greek μῑμικός (mīmikós, “belonging to mimes”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, actor”); see mime.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
mimic (third-person singular simple present mimics, present participle mimicking, simple past and past participle mimicked)
- To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
- 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
- An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
- (biology) To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.
Synonyms edit
- See also Thesaurus:imitate
Translations edit
to imitate, especially in order to ridicule
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biology: to take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Noun edit
mimic (plural mimics)
- A person who practices mimicry; especially:
- A mime.
- A comic who does impressions.
- Synonym: impressionist
- An entity that mimics another entity, such as a disease that resembles another disease in its signs and symptoms; see the great imitator.
- An imitation.
- 2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 190:
- Jess jumped slightly at hearing Tillyʼs extremely accurate mimic of her voice.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
a person who practices mimicry, or mime
imitation — see imitation
Adjective edit
mimic (not comparable)
- Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- I think every man is cloied and wearied, with seeing so many apish and mimicke trickes, that juglers teach their Dogges, as the dances, where they misse not one cadence of the sounds or notes they heare […].
- 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.
- 1800, William Wordsworth, There was a Boy:
- And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,
That they might answer him.
- Mock, pretended.
- (mineralogy) Imitative; characterized by resemblance to other forms; applied to crystals which by twinning resemble simple forms of a higher grade of symmetry.
Related terms edit
Further reading edit
- chapter MIMIC, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- chapter MIMIC, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Romanian edit
Etymology edit
Adjective edit
mimic m or n (feminine singular mimică, masculine plural mimici, feminine and neuter plural mimice)