spoof

«spoof» in Mova's school dictionary: a funny copy of something, such as a film, song or… — 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

noun (a spoof, spoofs); verb (spoof, spoofs, spoofed, spoofing)

meaning for a pupil

1) A spoof is a funny copy of something, such as a film, song or advert, that makes fun of it by exaggerating it. tree →

2) (verb) To spoof something is to make that kind of funny copy. tree →

3) (computers) Spoofing is pretending to be someone else online, for example sending an email that looks as if it comes from your bank or school, to trick people. tree →

4) (informal) A spoof can also be a trick or hoax. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and media lessons spoofs are a kind of parody, and the word tells the reader something is meant as a joke. In online safety lessons spoofed emails, websites and phone numbers are a warning sign of scams: check the sender and never give passwords. Phrases: "a spoof of", "spoof video", "spoof email", "spoofed number".

examples

• The film is a spoof of old superhero movies. tree →
• Our class made a spoof news report for fun. tree →
• Comedians love to spoof politicians. tree →
• That email is a spoof; it isn't really from the bank. tree →
• Scammers spoofed the school's phone number. tree →
• It was only a spoof, but some people believed it. tree →
• The song spoofs famous pop stars. tree →

note

Countable: a spoof, spoofs; verb regular: spoofed. Close words: parody, send-up, hoax. A spoof is meant to be funny; a spoofed email is meant to trick, which is dangerous.

In the corpora

• In 1957 the BBC programme Panorama showed a spoof film of spaghetti growing on trees, and many viewers believed it.

Trees and pragmatics

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