mock
Americanverb (used with object)
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mocks,
present (3rd person singular)
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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:
Cheer him, mock him or despise him; he’ll be here all week, so try the veal.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
Their California property—a four-bedroom, four-bathroom mock Tudor abode in Pacific Palisades—was purchased by the duo for $2.55 million in 1990.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 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
The rising seniors were selected from Kelley’s already competitive roughly 60-student commercial real-estate workshop, in which students analyze deals and pitch them to mock committees.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
They looked about ten or eleven years old, wore banana leaves on their heads, and held mock guns made from bamboo.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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 cruelly mocks the suffering of people who risk everything to flee war, persecution, and hardship in search of safety," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2025
“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
The single star was painted in berry juice, as was the bear, which looked so porcine that Mexicans who were struggling to protect California from Yankee rogues mocked it as more pig than bear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
She added: "My parents have always said 'tuth' rather than tooth and I remember being mocked about that, so I now say tooth, I'm slightly ashamed to say, because I corrected my accent."
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
More devastating, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, mocked Trump’s plan to charge tolls.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
The son must endure the gall of being mocked and seeing his mother importuned by greedy suitors who feast nightly on the family’s stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Now I get mocked by these groceries, pizza places, ice-cream stores, delis, Chinese places, bakeries, sushi joints, McDonald’ses.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
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
Social media has been flooded with posts from users in Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador and Peru questioning refereeing decisions or expressing disapproval of Argentina, while messages mocking rival teams also proliferated from Argentine accounts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 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
The Ukrainian president also requested a ceasefire, while striking a defiant, at-times mocking tone.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
But he did not look triumphant or mocking.
From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu
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.
