mocking

[ mok-ing ]

adjective

1. showing ridicule, contempt, or derision:

   Elsewhere along the parade route, small bands of protesters held mocking signs.

noun

1. contemptuous, derisive, and usually imitative speech or action:

   Jake just turned his face away and took the mocking and ridicule his brothers dished out.

Other Words From

• mock·ing·ly adverb
• self-mock·ing adjective
• un·mock·ing adjective
• un·mock·ing·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of mocking¹

First recorded in 1400–50; mock ( def ) + -ing ²( def ) for the adjective; mock ( def ) + -ing ¹( def ) for the noun

Example Sentences

Spiders keeping me company, traversing invisible filaments, playfully mocking me with their graceful mobility.

From Outside Online

This program enables us to perform the same way but on a digital mock-up.

From MIT Technology Review

Outside these specific categories are three modernistic wings — Villanova’s Saddiq Bey, Florida State’s Devin Vassell and Vanderbilt’s Aaron Nesmith — who have been pegged by most mock drafts as worthy of a late lottery pick.

From FiveThirtyEight

From 2016 to 2018, Volodymyr Kvashuk worked for Microsoft as a tester, placing mock online orders to make sure everything was working smoothly.

From Ars Technica

Laid off two years later, she set to work that very day mocking up a Web page for the nonprofit news site she had long toyed with starting — and just kept on reporting.

From Washington Post

“‘Pull your pants up, black people,’” said Buress, mocking Cosby from the stage.

From The Daily Beast

And keep in mind that even pre-ISIS, an Iraqi comedian was killed in 2006 for comically mocking those in power.

From The Daily Beast

But we should beware of the facile tradition of criticizing colleges, professors, and the young (or just mocking them).

From The Daily Beast

Oliver bares his soul as he highlights comments in which he is compared to a parrot and knocked for mocking an unremarkable soda.

From The Daily Beast

Kim is mocking the entire value system on which she built her career, as well as her own less-than-savory past.

From The Daily Beast

He stepped clear of the two men, faced the others, a mocking smile on his lips.

From Project Gutenberg

Dick hesitated a few seconds, and then told him, while Romanoff listened with a mocking smile on his lips.

From Project Gutenberg

Once an expression swept over his features which suggested a kind of mocking pity, but it was only for a moment.

From Project Gutenberg

But she altered her voice and began singing on such a mocking note that Frdric reddened to his very ears.

From Project Gutenberg

A mocking laugh arose from somewhere in the passage and echoed loudly and weirdly.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• derisive
• sarcastic