MOCKERY

parody, mockery, takeoff

(noun) humorous or satirical mimicry

jeer, jeering, mockery, scoff, scoffing

(noun) showing your contempt by derision

parody, lampoon, spoof, sendup, send-up, mockery, takeoff, burlesque, travesty, pasquinade, put-on

(noun) a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody’s style, usually in a humorous way

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

mockery (countable and uncountable, plural mockeries)

The action of mocking; ridicule, derision.

Something so lacking in necessary qualities as to inspire ridicule; a laughing-stock.

(obsolete) Something insultingly imitative; an offensively futile action, gesture etc.

Mimicry, imitation, now usually in a derogatory sense; a travesty, a ridiculous simulacrum.

Usage notes

• We often use make a mockery of someone or something, meaning to mock them. See also Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Synonyms

• See also ridicule

Source: Wiktionary


Mock"er*y, n.; pl. Mockeries. Etym: [F. moquerie.]

1. The act of mocking, deriding, and exposing to contempt, by mimicry, by insincere imitation, or by a false show of earnestness; a counterfeit appearance. It is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Shak. Grace at meals is now generally so performed as to look more like a mockery upon devotion than any solemn application of the mind to God. Law. And bear about the mockery of woe. Pope.

2. Insulting or contemptuous action or speech; contemptuous merriment; derision; ridicule. The laughingstock of fortune's mockeries. Spenser.

3. Subject of laughter, derision, or sport. The cruel handling of the city whereof they made a mockery. 2 Macc. viii. 17.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

3 April 2025

WHOLE

(noun) an assemblage of parts that is regarded as a single entity; “how big is that part compared to the whole?”; “the team is a unit”


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Coffee Trivia

The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.

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