mimic

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin mimicus, from Ancient Greek μιμικός (mimikós, “belonging to mimes”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, actor”); see mime.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈmɪm.ɪk/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪmɪk

Verb

mimic (third-person singular simple present mimics, present participle mimicking, simple past and past participle mimicked)

  1. To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
    • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, 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.
  2. (biology) To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.

Synonyms

Translations
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Translations to be checked

Noun

mimic (plural mimics)

  1. A person who practices mimicry, or mime.
  2. An imitation.

Translations
imitation — see imitation

Adjective

mimic (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
    • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
      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 […].
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Wordsworth
      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.
  2. Mock, pretended.
  3. (mineralogy) Imitative; characterized by resemblance to other forms; applied to crystals which by twinning resemble simple forms of a higher grade of symmetry.

Further reading
  • mimic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • mimic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
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