apish
Americanadjective
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having the qualities, appearance, or ways of an ape.
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slavishly imitative.
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foolishly affected; silly.
adjective
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stupid; foolish
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resembling an ape
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slavishly imitative
Other Word Forms
- apishly adverb
- apishness noun
Etymology
Origin of apish
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.
The shoulders were apish too, and the widely flaring blades of the pelvis were as primitive as Lucy’s—but the bottom of the same pelvis looked like a modern human’s.
From National Geographic • Sep. 10, 2015
According to evolutionary theorists , we probably owe these unsavory blemishes to our having lost our apish pelts too rapidly for our own good.
From Slate • Apr. 19, 2011
It is while the apish comedian is stamping around making chests and defiantly crying: "I'm a machador, I'm a machador!" that his real opponent, a large fat steer, cautiously muzzles up to him.
From Time Magazine Archive
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But unlike its apish kin, it had a clearly human characteristic.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The droning of this arrant humbug drives as many of the audience away as the zany's merry pranks and roguish whiskers and apish tricks have drawn together.
From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the First by Gozzi, Carlo
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.