mimic

present singular third person mimics · participle present mimicking · participle past mimicked · past mimicked · alternative obsolete mimick

1. transitiveTo imitate, especially in order to ridicule.

   An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

   2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly)

2. transitivebiologyTo take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.

plural mimics · alternative obsolete mimick

1. A person who practices mimicry; especially:
   1. A mime.
   2. A comic who does impressions.

      Synonyms: impressionist

2. An entity that mimics another entity, such as a disease that resembles another disease in its signs and symptoms; see the great imitator.
3. An imitation.

   Jess jumped slightly at hearing Tillyʼs extremely accurate mimic of her voice.

   2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 190

4. roleplaying gamesfantasyA fictional monster able to disguise itself as an inanimate object, commonly a treasure chest, often with the intent of luring adventurers into a trap.

alternative obsolete mimick

1. not comparablePertaining to mimicry; imitative.

   Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.

   1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   I think every man is cloied and wearied, with seeing so many apish and mimicke trickes, that juglers teach their Dogges, as the dances, where they misse not one cadence of the sounds or notes they heare[…].

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, That they might answer him.

   1800, William Wordsworth, There was a Boy

2. not comparableMock, pretended.
3. not comparablechemistryImitative; characterized by resemblance to other forms; applied to crystals which by twinning resemble simple forms of a higher grade of symmetry.