Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In botany, mask-like; having the lower lip pushed upward so as to close the hiatus between the two lips, as in the snapdragon: said of a gamopetalous irregular corolla.
- In zoöl., masked or disguised in any way.
- Same as
personated . - To assume or put on the character or appearance of; play the part of; pass one's self off as.
- To assume; put on; perform; play.
- To represent falsely or hypocritically; pretend: with a reflexive pronoun.
- To represent by way of similitude; typify.
- To describe; characterize; celebrate.
- To play a fictitious character.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To celebrate loudly; to extol; to praise.
- adjective (Bot.) Having the throat of a bilabiate corolla nearly closed by a projection of the base of the lower lip; masked, as in the flower of the snapdragon.
- transitive verb To assume the character of; to represent by a fictitious appearance; to act the part of; hence, to counterfeit; to feign
- transitive verb rare To set forth in an unreal character; to disguise; to mask.
- transitive verb To personify; to typify; to describe.
- intransitive verb To play or assume a character.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive to fraudulently portray another person; to
impersonate - verb transitive to portray a character (as in a play); to act
- verb transitive to attribute personal characteristics to something; to
personify - adjective botany Having the
throat of abilabiate corolla nearly closed by a projection of the base of the lower lip; masked, as in the flower of thesnapdragon .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb attribute human qualities to something
- verb pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The listeners were deprived of seeing and hearing Ben Rogers "personate"
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One might at first reject this conjecture on the grounds that several trips to personate at polling stations would exceed annual effort expenditure by Swampees, but this neglects the new Banglamularky postal voting system in which 8 to 10 adult residents at each address are registered in exchange for a tin of superlager, with all that fuss over signing paper taken over by friendly neighbourhood Nulabour worthies.
Boy George Is Sailing Close To The Wind….. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2010
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You have been brought there to personate someone, and the real person is imprisoned in this chamber.
Sole Music 2010
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Amid these perplexities, it suddenly occurred to my adventurous heart and contriving brain — what if I should personate the bridegroom? —
Saint Ronan's Well 2008
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First, you couldn't personate a living Christian monarch.
Archive 2008-11-01 Bardiac 2008
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First, you couldn't personate a living Christian monarch.
Sacraments on Stage? Bardiac 2008
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Who else better to 'personate the Cares of Life for Mr. Obama than Mr. Clinton?
I call Barack Obama to account for picking another bland, midwestern pretty boy. Ann Althouse 2008
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It was great blasphemy, when the devil said, I will ascend, and be like the highest; but it is greater blasphemy, to personate
The Essays 2007
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The high mimetic powers possessed by Mr. Dickens enabled him to personate with remarkable force the various characters of the story, and with admirable skill to pass rapidly from the hard, unbelieving Scrooge, to trusting and thankful
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Periplectomines, that good personate old man, delicium senis, well understood this in Plautus: for when Pleusides exhorted him to marry that he might have children of his own, he readily replied in this sort,
minerva commented on the word personate
That, after he found me out there (I know not how), he could procure two women dressed out richly, to personate your ladyship and Miss Montague...
Clarissa Harlowe to Lady Betty Lawrance, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
January 4, 2008