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imitate

[im-i-teyt]

Example Sentences

verb (used with object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.

to follow or endeavor to follow as a model or example: to imitate an author's style; to imitate an older brother.

to mimic; impersonate: The students imitated the teacher behind her back.

to make a copy of; reproduce closely.

to have or assume the appearance of; simulate; resemble.

Origin:
1525–35; < Latin imitātus past participle of imitārī to copy, presumably a frequentative akin to the base of imāgō image

Related forms

im·i·ta·tor, noun

non·im·i·tat·ing, adjective

o·ver·im·i·tate, verb (used with object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.

pre·im·i·tate, verb (used with object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.

un·im·i·tat·ed, adjective

EXPAND

un·im·i·tat·ing, adjective

well-im·i·tat·ed, adjective

COLLAPSE

Synonyms
2. ape, mock. 3. Imitate, copy, duplicate, reproduce all mean to follow or try to follow an example or pattern. Imitate is the general word for the idea: to imitate someone's handwriting, behavior. To copy is to make a fairly exact imitation of an original creation: to copy a sentence, a dress, a picture. To duplicate is to produce something that exactly resembles or corresponds to something else; both may be originals: to duplicate the terms of two contracts. To reproduce is to make a likeness or reconstruction of an original: to reproduce a 16th-century theater.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To imitate

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Imitate is one of our favorite verbs.

So is subtilize. Does it mean:

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

to bark; yelp.

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Example Sentences

He changed my fly from a pink one to a green one, to imitate the fruit.

Rosenbaum has long argued that public community colleges should imitate certain practices of their for-profit peers.

And even when they have attempted to imitate marine life, they have tended to consider it through mammalian eyes.

EXPAND

He changed my fly from a pink one to a green one, to imitate the fruit.

Rosenbaum has long argued that public community colleges should imitate certain practices of their for-profit peers.

And even when they have attempted to imitate marine life, they have tended to consider it through mammalian eyes.

Some birds can imitate many nonavian sounds, including human speech.

In other words, babies listen to the words adults use and the situations in which they use them and imitate accordingly.

The children dance and pose to imitate the sculptures.

In addition to simulating exercise protocols, the device may be used to imitate the physiological effects of spacewalking.

Humpback whales not only sing, they imitate the singing of other whales.

They have little choice but to imitate the natural sciences.

One approach being pursued by researchers is to imitate nature.

If you're looking for a role model in a world of complexity, you could do worse than to imitate a bee.

When they're older, they start to imitate the sounds they hear.

In addition, children do not blindly imitate adults of the same gender.

Computer models of climate and other processes come close to nature but hardly imitate it.

Mazursky's work has been ignored is that he's the hardest to imitate.

They will study digital evolution using self-replicating computer programs that imitate natural evolution.

Other developed countries should imitate this model, rather than bashing it.

Among songbirds and humpback whales, competing males seem to imitate each other's songs.

Visual artists often try to imitate reality closely.

In the computing world, the ability to imitate another architecture is known as emulation.

He donned a wig to imitate his twin brother at a news conference.

Gutenberg's fonts included variant letters, the idea being to imitate actual handwriting.

Christian leaders would have done well to imitate that secret.

At times he paused to imitate the guttural groan of the jaguar.

He was the man, everyone said, that the computers try to imitate.

Anglers often use artificial flies to imitate the blue-winged olive.

And of course, having students imitate the masters is an age-old practice.

Non-profits do plenty of other things to motivate their workers that for-profits could imitate.

Naturally, today's women want to imitate the more lavish look.

Instead, they set out to imitate what they regarded as the unaffected grace of the often anonymous artists who preceded him.

Colby established that a computer chip could be programmed to imitate a paranoid schizophrenic.

Licht said the program would not imitate its rivals.

Crutzen's plan would imitate the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions, which send large sulfur-rich clouds into the atmosphere.

Berkeley researchers are testing artificial microfibers that imitate those a gecko uses to cling to wet surfaces.

Nestle four packs into small shallow containers to imitate salad bowls and set down cultivators and.

Play this a few times, and help her to imitate it a few times.

Then try to imitate its structure and evidentiary practices as closely as you can.

Previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to imitate vocal languages had failed.

They prefer to look at faces over objects, and they even imitate facial expressions.

Their manufacturers mostly imitate each other, which is the safe.

Then you have to imitate the original brush strokes in a detailed way".

In that respect, unfortunately, life does not always imitate art.

Movies imitate television as television imitates movies that imitate television.

He reacted against a mode of theorizing that aspired to imitate geometric and mechanical sciences.

These neurons appear to help animals and humans imitate the behaviors they observe.

Cardboard cutouts are even used by some shipowners to imitate crew silhouettes.

Friends of their son said they were smart enough not to imitate everything they see.

One could argue that the best hope for the future is to imitate them.

And then, those nations that survive, will set the pace that others will imitate.

Dance is another example of cross–sensory mapping in which body rhythms imitate sound rhythms kinetically and.

What is critical is to decide which style to imitate and to keep it in mind as you cull from the available markets.

But he does more than imitate the masters and make sport with melodramatic japes.

Midler contended that the backup singer had been instructed to imitate her as closely as possible.

Most babies who watched the hands-free demonstration continued to imitate the forehead action.

Whenever a low-wage, educatable population can imitate the technology of a more advanced nation, it will do.

The three agreed to destroy the tapes and not use any materials that imitate the show.

They imitate people in his halfway house, mocking them and calling their names.

Yet, foreign choreographers inspired by them do not necessarily imitate them.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

imitate (ˈɪmɪˌteɪt)

—vb
1.	to try to follow the manner, style, character, etc, of or take as a model: many writers imitated the language of Shakespeare
2.	to pretend to be or to impersonate, esp for humour; mimic
3.	to make a copy or reproduction of; duplicate; counterfeit
4.	to make or be like; resemble or simulate: her achievements in politics imitated her earlier successes in business

[C16: from Latin imitārī; see image]

'imitable

—*adj*

imita'bility

—n

'imitableness

—n

'imitator

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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