Imitation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Imitation \Im"i*ta"tion\, n. [L. imitatio: cf. F. imitation.]
     1. The act of imitating.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Poesy is an art of imitation, . . . that is to say,
              a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth.


                                                    --Sir P.
                                                    Sidney.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That which is made or produced as a copy; that which is
        made to resemble something else, whether for laudable or
        for fraudulent purposes; likeness; resemblance.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Both these arts are not only true imitations of
              nature, but of the best nature.       --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Mus.) One of the principal means of securing unity and
        consistency in polyphonic composition; the repetition of
        essentially the same melodic theme, phrase, or motive, on
        different degrees of pitch, by one or more of the other
        parts of voises. Cf. {Canon}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Biol.) The act of condition of imitating another species
        of animal, or a plant, or unanimate object. See {Imitate},
        v. t., 3.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Imitation is often used adjectively to characterize
           things which have a deceptive appearance, simulating
           the qualities of a superior article; -- opposed to
           {real} or {genuine}; as, imitation lace; imitation
           bronze; imitation modesty, etc.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  imitation
       adj : not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine
             article; "it isn't fake anything; it's real synthetic
             fur"; "faux pearls"; "false teeth"; "decorated with
             imitation palm leaves"; "a purse of simulated alligator
             hide" [syn: {fake}, {false}, {faux}, {simulated}]
       n 1: the doctrine that representations of nature or human
            behavior should be accurate imitations [ant: {formalism}]
       2: a copy that is represented as the original [syn: {counterfeit},
           {forgery}]
       3: copying (or trying to copy) the actions of someone else
       4: a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic
          effect [syn: {caricature}, {impersonation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  302 Moby Thesaurus words for "imitation":
     accordance, acting, adoption, affected, agent, agreement, alike,
     alikeness, alliance, alternate, alternative, analogy, aped, aping,
     apocryphal, approach, appropriation, approximation, artificial,
     assimilation, assumed, assumption, backup, bastard, bogus,
     borrowed plumes, brummagem, burlesque, caricature, certified copy,
     change, changeling, characterization, cheat, clinquant, closeness,
     colorable, colored, community, comparability, comparison,
     conduplication, conformity, consimilar, copied, copy, copying,
     correspondence, counterfeit, counterfeited, counterpart, deputy,
     derivation, deriving, distorted, double, doubling, dressed up,
     dumb show, dummy, duplicate, duplication, echo, ectype,
     embellished, embodiment, embroidered, emulation, enacting,
     enactment, equal, equivalent, ersatz, exchange, facsimile,
     factitious, fair copy, faithful copy, fake, faked, fakement, false,
     falsified, farce, favoring, feigned, fictitious, fictive, fill-in,
     following, forged, forgery, frame-up, fraud, garbled, gemination,
     ghost, ghostwriter, hoax, hokey, homogeneous, icon, identical,
     identity, illegitimate, image, imitated, impersonating,
     impersonation, impostor, impression, incarnation, infringement,
     ingemination, iteration, junk, junky, knockoff, lampoon, like,
     likeness, likening, locum tenens, make-believe, makeshift,
     man-made, masquerade, metaphor, metonymy, mimesis, mimicked,
     mimicking, mimicry, miming, mock, mock-up, mockery, mocking, model,
     nearly reproduced, nearness, next best thing, not unlike,
     palingenesis, pantomime, pantomiming, parallelism, paraphrase,
     parity, parody, paste, pasticcio, pastiche, performance,
     performing, personation, personification, personnel, perverted,
     phony, picture, pinch, pinch hitter, pinchbeck, pirating,
     plagiarism, plagiarized, plagiary, playing, portrait, portrayal,
     posing, pretended, provisional, proxy, pseudo, put-on, put-up job,
     quasi, queer, quotation, re-creation, re-formation, reappearance,
     rebirth, rebuilding, reconstitution, reconstruction, recurrence,
     redesign, redoing, redoubling, reduplication, reecho, reedition,
     reestablishment, refashioning, regeneration, regenesis,
     regurgitation, reincarnation, reinstitution, reissue, reiteration,
     relief, remaking, renascence, renewal, renovation, reoccurrence,
     reorganization, repetition, replacement, replica, replication,
     representation, representative, reprinting, reproduction,
     resemblance, resembling, reserve, reserves, reshaping, restoration,
     restructuring, resumption, resurrection, return, revision, revival,
     ringer, rip-off, sameness, satire, second string, secondary,
     self-styled, semblance, sham, shoddy, sign, similar, similarity,
     simile, similitude, simulacrum, simulated, simulation, smacking of,
     so-called, soi-disant, something like, spare, spares, spurious,
     squib, stand-in, stopgap, sub, substituent, substitute,
     substitution, succedaneum, suggestive of, superseder, supplanter,
     supposititious, surrogate, swindle, symbol, synecdoche, synthetic,
     take-off, takeoff, taking, temporary, tentative, third string, tin,
     tinsel, titivated, token, travesty, twinning, twisted, unauthentic,
     understudy, ungenuine, uniform with, unnatural, unreal, utility,
     utility player, version, vicar, vicarious, vice-president,
     vice-regent, warped, whited sepulcher, wicked imitation