Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A form of ancient Greek and Roman theatrical entertainment in which familiar characters and situations were farcically portrayed on stage, often with coarse dialogue and ludicrous actions.
  • noun A performance of or dialogue for such an entertainment.
  • noun A performer in a mime.
  • noun A modern performer who specializes in comic mimicry.
  • noun The art of portraying characters and acting out situations or a narrative by gestures and body movement without the use of words; pantomime.
  • noun A performance of pantomime.
  • noun An actor or actress skilled in pantomime.
  • intransitive verb To ridicule by imitation; mimic.
  • intransitive verb To act out with gestures and body movement.
  • intransitive verb To act as a mimic.
  • intransitive verb To portray characters and situations by gesture and body movement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An imitator; one skilled in mimicry; a mimic; specifically, a mimic actor; a performer in the ancient farces or burlesques called mimes.
  • noun A dramatic entertainment among the ancient Greeks of Sicily and southern Italy and the Romans, consisting generally of farcical mimicry of real events and persons.
  • To mimic, or play the buffoon; act in a mime.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of drama in which real persons and events were generally represented in a ridiculous manner; an ancient Greek or Roman form of farce.
  • noun An actor in such representations.
  • noun The art of representing actions, events, situations, or stories solely by gestures and body movements, without speaking; pantomime{3}.
  • noun An actor who performs or specializes in mime{3}; an actor who communicates entirely by gesture and facial expression; a pantomime{2}; a pantomimist; a mimer.
  • noun A mimic.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To mimic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of acting without words; pantomime
  • noun A pantomime actor
  • noun A classical theatrical entertainment in the form of farce
  • noun A performer of such a farce
  • noun A person who mimics others in a comical manner
  • verb To mimic.
  • verb To act without words.
  • verb To represent an action or object through gesture, without the use sound.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb act out without words but with gestures and bodily movements only
  • noun a performance using gestures and body movements without words
  • verb imitate (a person or manner), especially for satirical effect
  • noun an actor who communicates entirely by gesture and facial expression

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin mīmus, from Greek mīmos.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Latin mimus, from Ancient Greek μῖμος (mimos, "imitator, actor").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "To mime the wind, one becomes a tempest. To mime a fish, you throw yourself into the sea."

    - Marcel Marceau

    September 23, 2007

  • JM knows a mime who is determined to remain silent, to say the least.

    June 19, 2011