mock
Americanverb (used with object)
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mocks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mocked,
past participle, past
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mocking
present participle
-
to attack or treat with ridicule, contempt, or derision.
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to ridicule by mimicry of action or speech; mimic derisively.
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to mimic, imitate, or counterfeit.
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to challenge; defy.
His actions mock convention.
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to deceive, delude, or disappoint.
verb (used without object)
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mocks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mocked,
past participle, past
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mocking
present participle
noun
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a contemptuous or derisive imitative action or speech; mockery or derision.
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something mocked or derided; an object of derision.
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an imitation; counterfeit; fake.
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Shipbuilding.
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a hard pattern representing the surface of a plate with a warped form, upon which the plate is beaten to shape after furnacing.
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Also called mock mold. bed.
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adjective
verb phrase
verb
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to behave with scorn or contempt (towards); show ridicule (for)
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(tr) to imitate, esp in fun; mimic
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(tr) to deceive, disappoint, or delude
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(tr) to defy or frustrate
the team mocked the visitors' attempt to score
noun
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the act of mocking
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a person or thing mocked
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a counterfeit; imitation
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informal (often plural) (in England and Wales) the school examinations taken as practice before public examinations
adjective
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sham or counterfeit
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serving as an imitation or substitute, esp for practice purposes
a mock battle
mock finals
Synonym Usage
See ridicule.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mocksimple
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mockssimple
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have mockedperfect
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has mockedperfect
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am mockingprogressive
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are mockingprogressive
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is mockingprogressive
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have been mockingperfect progressive
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has been mockingperfect progressive
Past
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mockedsimple
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had mockedperfect
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was mockingprogressive
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were mockingprogressive
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had been mockingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mock
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English mokken, from Middle French mocquer
Explanation
Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but to mock is to make fun of or mimic someone with contempt, ridicule or derision. "Louise’s favorite pastime was to mock her brother’s inability to sing on key." The verb mock — as in the use that inspired the name of the mockingbird — can be simple imitation but, more often, to mock someone is to show disdain through mimicry or parody. As an adjective, mock indicates a fake or a simulation: "The design team made the most fabulous mock Eiffel Tower for our staging of An American in Paris." "His mock gratitude was, at times, unbearable."
Vocabulary lists containing mock
The Diary of Anne Frank
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"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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Nothing But the Truth
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fans were asked not to leave socks on the mock grave, made of pebbles with messages written on them, because the beach was environmentally sensitive.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Cheer him, mock him or despise him; he’ll be here all week, so try the veal.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
El-Sayed at one point had to direct his supporters not to mock Stevens in gross personal terms online.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
Many job seekers are employing artificial intelligence to rehearse asking for a higher salary by using large language models like Claude or ChatGPT to practice a mock negotiation.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Each time Worsley calculated the number of miles they had put behind them, the bird seemed to mock their slow progress.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
The Online Safety Act requires platforms like Instagram to apply terms of service consistently, including where content mocks people based on protected characteristics, like their disability.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026
In a chapter titled “The War of the Gods and Demons,” Chesterton mocks the idea that soldiers in a war fight for “abstract” economic or geopolitical advantages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
In fact, Anthropic, which is behind the Claude AI chatbot, indirectly mocks OpenAI’s ChatGPT in its ad.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 6, 2026
She identifies herself as a U.S. citizen and lightly mocks Ross for filming their license plates.
From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2026
“It not only mocks in most instances the power of medicine, but it has spread thro’ several parts of the city remote from the spot where it originated.”
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
While there is interest in big Premier League matches, and children wear Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo kits, any attempts to actually play football tend to be mocked, unless it's Aussie rules.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
More devastating, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, mocked Trump’s plan to charge tolls.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
But in her outraged response, Stuckey became most emotional over an aside in which I mocked her for denying that dinosaurs existed millions of years before humans.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
Venezuelans searching for loved ones mocked Venezuelan National Guard troops, yelling that they were incompetent and only good for crushing protests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
“Such is life,” I said, and mocked a sigh.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
It’s funny, my mother used to look at me with an expression that was neither mocking nor exasperated, merely seasoned, and say, “Baby, not everything needs to be a production.”
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
"We absolutely need that as we're mocking things up, but then you come here and you have the best brass players in the world... It's mind-blowing."
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
Some videos make it onto Brovdi's social media accounts -- where he is followed by hundreds of thousands -- with cartoony music and mocking captions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
A lawyer representing Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is calling for the destruction of all copies of an extremely limited-edition, Operation-style board game mocking SGA for ‘foul baiting.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
He could hear the mocking laughter of colleagues in Washington and at Rand.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
