Other forms: mocked, mocking, mocks
To mock someone is to make fun of them by copying the way they talk or move, and it is meant to sting. The voice put on behind a teacher's back; a crowd mocking the player who missed.
The verb takes the person straight — 'they mocked him for weeks', not 'mocked at him'. As an adjective it drops the cruelty and means not real, done for practice: a mock exam, a mock trial, mock Tudor houses built in the 1930s, mock cream. British students call their practice exams the mocks. Mockery is the noun, and a mock-up is a full-size model of something not yet built. There is a colder use as well: weather that mocks your plans makes them look foolish without saying a word.
1verbmockTo make fun of someone or something, especially by imitating them.~2%
“The other children mocked his accent until he stopped speaking in class.”
synonyms: ridicule, taunt, jeer at
2adjectivedoneNot real; done for practice or for show.~94%
“We sat a mock exam in January.”
3verbspeechTo make something look foolish or pointless.~2%
“The empty seats mocked all their weeks of planning.”
4nountakenA practice exam taken before the real one.~2%
“He failed his mocks and worked hard from then on.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: ridicule, tease
Mock came through Old French mocquer, to deride or jeer, and behind that sit Middle Dutch mocken, to mumble, and Middle Low German mucken, to grumble with the mouth half open. The whole family is about noises made without opening your mouth properly — Dutch mokken is still to sulk, German mucksen to let out a sound. Mockery started as a mutter, not a clever line.
Proto-Indo-European
*mūg-
Proto-Germanic
*mukkijaną
Proto-West Germanic
*mokkijan
Middle Low German
mucken — to grumble, talk with the mouth half-opened
Middle Dutch
mocken — to mumble
Old French
mocquer
Middle English
mokken
English, today
mock
Built from
From Middle English mokken, from Old French mocquer, moquier (“to deride, jeer”), from Middle Dutch mocken (“to mumble”) or Middle Low German mucken (“to grumble, talk with the mouth half-opened”), both from Proto-West Germanic mokkijan, mukkijan (“to low, bellow; mumble”), from Proto-Germanic mukkijaną, mūhaną (“to low, bellow, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European mūg-, mūk- (“to low, mumble”). Cognate with Dutch mokken (“to sulk; pout; mope; grumble”), Old High German firmucken (“to be stupid”), Modern German mucksen (“to utter a word; mumble; grumble”), West Frisian mokke (“to mope; sulk; grumble”), Swedish mucka (“to murmur”), dialectal Dutch mokkel (“kiss”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA