mimic

English

Alternative forms

• mimick

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• 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”, 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

• See also Wikisaurus:imitate

Translations

to imitate, especially in order to ridicule

• Finnish: imitoida (fi), matkia (fi)

• Russian: имитировать (ru) (imitírovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: oponašati (sh)
• Slovene: posnemati (sl), oponašati (sl)

biology: to take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage

• Finnish: naamioitua (fi)

• Russian: имитировать (ru) (imitírovatʹ)
• Slovene: posnemati (sl)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Vietnamese: nhái, bắt chước

Noun

mimic (plural mimics)

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

Translations

a person who practices mimicry, or mime

• Finnish: miimikko (fi)
• Irish: aithriseoir (ga) m
• Jèrriais: d'ganneux m

• Russian: мим (ru) (mim) m, имитатор (ru) (imitátor) m

imitation — see imitation

Adjective

mimic (comparative more mimic, superlative most mimic)

1. Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12:

     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 [...].

   • Milton

     Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.

   • Wotton

     Man is, of all creatures, the most mimical.

   • Wordsworth

     Mimic hootings.

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.

Related terms

• mime
• mimicable
• mimicry

External links

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