mimic

«mimic» in Mova's school dictionary: To copy the way someone talks or moves, often to be funny… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (mimic, mimics, mimicked, mimicking); noun (a mimic, mimics); adjective (mimic — rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) To copy the way someone talks or moves, often to be funny or to make fun of them. tree →

2) In nature, to look or sound like something else to stay safe or to trick, as some animals do. tree →

3) (noun) A person or animal that is good at copying sounds or actions. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science it is about animal disguise: a hoverfly mimics a wasp, the lyrebird mimics chainsaws and cameras. In everyday life and kindness lessons, mimicking someone to make fun of them can hurt. In drama, mimicking voices is a skill. Phrases: a good mimic, mimic someone's accent.

examples

• Parrots can mimic human words. tree →
• The lyrebird mimics the sound of a camera shutter. tree →
• The hoverfly mimics a wasp so birds leave it alone. tree →
• Please don't mimic Sam's voice; it upsets him. tree →
• My sister is a brilliant mimic of our teacher. tree →
• The stick insect mimics a twig. tree →
• Robots can mimic the way people walk. tree →
• By-and-by he began to mimic the speech and gait of persons in the street. tree →

note

Spelling trap: add k before -ed and -ing: mimicked, mimicking (not mimiced). Noun: mimicry, the copying in nature. Similar: imitate, copy.

In the corpora

• The mimic octopus, discovered in 1998 off Indonesia, copies the shape and movement of dangerous animals like sea snakes and flatfish.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «mimic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.