imitate
verb (used with object)
to follow or endeavor to follow as a model or example.
had been imitating
-
past perfect progressiveof imitate.past perfect progressive
Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.
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.
She said Kennedy had been imitating characters from a movie.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 10, 2022
If Jeong had been imitating the rhetoric of her harassers, we would expect most instances of it to come in direct response to trolls.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2018
Watching American Sniper, I kept wondering who Kyle himself had been imitating.
From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2015
Charging that the makers of Vita products had been imitating her distinctively nasal tones in radio commercials, the actress sued the herring marinaters and their advertising agency, Solow/Wexton, Inc., for $4,000,000 in damages.
From Time Magazine Archive
He imitated love compositions as he had been imitating love poems just before—it was a sham mistress he courted, and a sham passion, expressed as became it.
From Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges by George Saintsbury
