imitate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from Latin imitātus, perfect active participle of imitor (“to copy, portray, imitate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Cognate with French imiter.

imitate (third-person singular simple present imitates, present participle imitating, simple past and past participle imitated)

  1. To follow as a model or a pattern; to make a copy, counterpart or semblance of.
    • 1870, Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste, page 170:
      Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated, and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.
    • 2007 February 20, Tina Kelley, “A Wet Wind Tunnel So Ships Can Move Faster and Better”, in The New York Times‎[1], archived from the original on 18 December 2022:
      A wave simulator in the tank can re-enact tsunamis and northeasters, and imitate wave conditions from midocean.
    • 2019 August 21, Tik Root, “Inside the Race to Build the World's First Commercial Octopus Farm”, in TIME‎[2], archived from the original on 28 August 2019:
      The room was dark and cool, lit with a dim red light. “This was designed to imitate a cave,” said Rosas.

to follow as a model

imitate

  1. present adverbial passive participle of imiti

imitate

  1. inflection of imitare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

imitate f pl

  1. feminine plural of imitato

imitāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of imitātus

imitate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of imitar combined with te