Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To treat with ridicule or contempt; deride: synonym: ridicule.
  • intransitive verb To imitate in fun or derision.
  • intransitive verb To mimic or resemble closely.
  • intransitive verb To frustrate the hopes or intentions of.
  • intransitive verb To cause to appear irrelevant, ineffectual, or impossible.
  • intransitive verb To express scorn or ridicule; jeer.
  • noun The act of mocking.
  • noun An object of scorn or derision.
  • adjective Simulated; false; sham.
  • adverb In an insincere or pretending manner.
  • idiom (make/a) To subject to ridicule; mock.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Derisive or contemptuous action or speech; also, a bringing into contempt or ridicule.
  • noun That which one derides or mocks.
  • noun Mimicry; imitation.
  • noun A trifle.
  • noun Mock turtle.
  • Feigned; counterfeit; spurious: as, mock heroism; mock modesty; a mock battle.
  • Having close resemblance, as if imitative.
  • To treat derisively or contemptuously; make sport of by mimicry, ridicule, or sarcasm; deride.
  • To simulate, imitate, or mimic; produce a semblance of.
  • To deceive by simulation or pretense: disappoint with false expectation; fool.
  • To set at naught; defy.
  • Synonyms Ridicule, etc. (see taunt), jeer at, gibe at, take off, make game of.
  • Mimic, Ape, etc. See imitate.
  • To delude.
  • To use ridicule or derision; gibe or jeer; flout: often with at.
  • noun A root or stump.
  • noun A tuft of sedge.

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

  • intransitive verb To make sport in contempt or in jest; to speak in a scornful or jeering manner.
  • noun An act of ridicule or derision; a scornful or contemptuous act or speech; a sneer; a jibe; a jeer.
  • noun rare Imitation; mimicry.
  • transitive verb To imitate; to mimic; esp., to mimic in sport, contempt, or derision; to deride by mimicry.
  • transitive verb To treat with scorn or contempt; to deride.
  • transitive verb To disappoint the hopes of; to deceive; to tantalize.
  • adjective Imitating reality, but not real; false; counterfeit; assumed; sham.
  • adjective (Bot.) a genus of slender umbelliferous herbs (Discopleura) growing in wet places.
  • adjective burlesquing the heroic.
  • adjective See Blende (a).
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the European blackcap.
  • adjective (Bot.) a genus of American and Asiatic shrubs (Philadelphus), with showy white flowers in panicled cymes. Philadelphus coronarius, from Asia, has fragrant flowers; the American kinds are nearly scentless.
  • adjective See Parhelion.
  • adjective a soup made of calf's head, veal, or other meat, and condiments, in imitation of green turtle soup.
  • adjective a fabric made in imitation of velvet. See Mockado.

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

  • noun An imitation, usually with the connotation that it's one of lesser quality.
  • noun Mockery, the act of mocking.
  • noun A practice exam set by an educating institution to prepare students for an important exam.
  • verb To mimic, to simulate.
  • verb To make fun of by mimicking, to taunt.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English mokken, from Old French mocquer.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English mokken, from Middle French mocquer ("to deride, jeer"), from Middle Dutch mocken ("to mumble") or Middle Low German mucken ("to grumble, talk with the mouth half-opened"), both from Old Saxon *mokkian, *mukkian ("to low, mumble"), from Proto-Germanic *mukkjanan, *mūhanan (“to low, bellow, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūg-, *mūk- (“to low, mumble”). Cognate with Old High German firmucken ("to be stupid"), Modern German mucksen ("to utter a word"), Dutch dialectal mokkel ("kiss").

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  • Another winter,

    And here am I,

    By the side of the stove,

    that a woman might dream of me,

    That I might bury in her breast

    A secret she would not mock;

    Dreaming that in my fading years

    I might spring forth as light,

    And she would say:

    This light is mine;

    Let no woman draw near it.

    - Buland al-Haidari, 'Old Age'.

    September 16, 2008