mock

To mock a person or a thing is to laugh at it, make fun of it, criticize, or imitate.

• Students caught mocking the teacher were told to stay after school for a detention.
• When a man with a limp* walked by, Todd mocked the man by faking his own limp. No one thought it was funny.
• Protestors mocked the U.S. government with a large figure of Uncle Sam and a burned flag.
• Older children mocked the clowns who performed in the parade.
• Sometimes it feels as though my computer is mocking me.

The word "mock" is also used as an adjective to describe an imitation or a model of something:

• A mock website was created to give investors an idea of what the actual version would look like later.
• Firefighters learn how to save lives through mock emergency situations in which people pretend to need help.
• This is a mockup of the machine that the company wants to build. (mockup = model)

The word "mockery" is a noun:

• The judge fined the defendant who did whatever he could to make a mockery of the trial.
• Deaf people around the world felt that the South African interpreter made a mockery of the sign language that he pretended to know.

*limp: to walk with stiffness due to pain or injury. One leg is favored over the other.

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December 14, 2013