mock

• mocque (obsolete)

From Middle English mokken, from Old French mocquer, moquier (“to deride, jeer”), from Middle Dutch mocken (“to mumble”) or Middle Low German mucken (“to grumble, talk with the mouth half-opened”), both from Old Saxon *mokkian, *mukkian (“to low, bellow; mumble”), from Proto-Germanic *mukkijaną, *mūhaną (“to low, bellow, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūg-, *mūk- (“to low, mumble”). Cognate with Dutch mokken (“to sulk; pout; mope; grumble”), Old High German firmucken (“to be stupid”), Modern German mucksen (“to utter a word; mumble; grumble”), West Frisian mokke (“to mope; sulk; grumble”), Dutch dialectal mokkel (“kiss”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɒk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɑk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒk

mock (plural mocks)

1. An imitation, usually of lesser quality.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Crashaw to this entry?)

2. Mockery, the act of mocking.
   • Bible, Proverbs xiv. 9

     Fools make a mock at sin.

   • Shakespeare, Henry V

     Thus says my king; an if your father's highness
     Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
     Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
     He'll call you to so hot an answer of it […]

3. A practice exam set by an educating institution to prepare students for an important exam.

   He got a B in his History mock, but improved to an A in the exam.

4. (software engineering) A mockup or prototype.
   • 2013, Jeff Langr, Modern C++ Programming with Test-Driven Development

     You can, if you must, create a mock that derives from a concrete class. The problem is that the resulting class represents a mix of production and mocked behavior, a beast referred to as a partial mock.

• mocksome

mock (third-person singular simple present mocks, present participle mocking, simple past and past participle mocked)

1. To mimic, to simulate.
   • Shakespeare

     To see the life as lively mocked as ever / Still sleep mocked death.

   • Shakespeare

     Mocking marriage with a dame of France.

2. To make fun of by mimicking, to taunt.
   • Bible, 1 Kings xviii. 27

     Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud.

   • Gray

     Let not ambition mock their useful toil.

3. To tantalise, and disappoint the hopes of.
   • Bible, Judges xvi. 13

     Thou hast mocked me, and told me lies.

   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, Act V, Scene III:

     And with his spirit sadly I survive, / to mock the expectations of the world; / to frustrate prophecies, and to raze out / rotten opinion […]

   • 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene III:

     "It is the greene-ey'd Monster, which doth mocke / The meate it feeds on."

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     Why do I overlive? / Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out / to deathless pain?

   • Milton

     He will not […] / Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence.

   • 1765, Benjamin Heath, A revisal of Shakespear's text, page 563 (a commentary on the "mocke the meate" line from Othello):

     ‘Mock’ certainly never signifies to loath. Its common signification is, to disappoint.

   • 1812, The Critical Review or, Annals of Literature, page 190:

     The French revolution indeed is a prodigy which has mocked the expectations both of its friends and its foes. It has cruelly disappointed the fondest hopes of the first, nor has it observed that course which the last thought that it would have pursued.

4. (software engineering, transitive) To create a mockup or prototype of.

   What's the best way to mock a database layer?

• See also Thesaurus:mock
• See also Thesaurus:imitate

• mock out
• much-mocked

• jeer

mock (not comparable)

1. Imitation, not genuine; fake.

   mock turtle soup

   mock leather