mimic

English

Alternative forms

• mimick

Etymology

From Latin mīmicus, from Ancient Greek μῑμικός (mīmikós, “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

• See also Thesaurus:imitate

Translations

Noun

mimic (plural mimics)

1. A person who practices mimicry; especially:
   1. A mime.
   2. A comic who does impressions.

      Synonym: impressionist

2. An entity that mimics another entity, such as a disease that resembles another disease in its signs and symptoms; see the great imitator.
3. An imitation.
   • 2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 190:

     Jess jumped slightly at hearing Tillyʼs extremely accurate mimic of her voice.

Synonyms

• mimicker

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

mimic (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val 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.

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

Further reading

• 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

Etymology

Borrowed from French mimique.

Adjective

mimic m or n (feminine singular mimică, masculine plural mimici, feminine and neuter plural mimice)

1. mimic

Declension