mocking

American  

[mok-ing] / ˈmɒk ɪŋ /

adjective

1. showing ridicule, contempt, or derision.

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

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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 Word Forms

• mockingly adverb
• self-mocking adjective
• unmocking adjective
• unmockingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of mocking

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

Example Sentences

You wonder if its designers—the Tokyo-based firm SANAA—were mocking the pristine white box of the contemporary museum gallery.

From The Wall Street Journal

Afroman takes the stand in a civil lawsuit brought against him by sheriff’s deputies he featured in mocking videos after they raided his home in 2022.

From Los Angeles Times

Extra color moments came from those mocking oboes, as well as some brief military flourishes from a pair of trumpeters.

From The Wall Street Journal

A year after he lampooned a judge in a mocking poem, he had the misfortune of standing before him charged with seditious libel for a pamphlet satirizing the Church.

From The Wall Street Journal

The fog engulfed them, leaving the empty hillside mocking him.

From Literature

Related Words

• derisive
• sarcastic