Library / English Dictionary

APE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("ape" is a kind of...):

primate (any placental mammal of the order Primates; has good eyesight and flexible hands and feet)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ape"):

anthropoid ape (any tailless ape of the families Pongidae and Hylobatidae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Person who resembles a nonhuman primate

Synonyms:

anthropoid; ape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ape" is a kind of...):

misfit (someone unable to adapt to their circumstances)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone who copies the words or behavior of another

Synonyms:

ape; aper; copycat; emulator; imitator

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ape" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ape"):

epigon; epigone (an inferior imitator of some distinguished writer, artist, or musician)

parrot (a copycat who does not understand the words or acts being imitated)

Derivation:

ape (imitate uncritically and in every aspect)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Represent in or produce a caricature of

Example:

The drawing caricatured the President

Synonyms:

ape; caricature

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "ape" is one way to...):

mock (imitate with mockery and derision)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Imitate uncritically and in every aspect

Example:

Her little brother apes her behavior

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "ape" is one way to...):

imitate (appear like, as in behavior or appearance)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

ape; aper (someone who copies the words or behavior of another)

apery (the act of mimicking; imitative behavior)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was by the same method that men, aping her, bred race- horses and cucumbers.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The question which we have to face is whether he approaches more closely to the ape or the man.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now that you think me disqualified to become your husband, you recoil from my touch as if I were some toad or ape.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

While there have been age-related studies of great apes, the profound memory impairment found in Alzheimer's patients has not yet been demonstrated in nonhuman primates.

(New research detects Alzheimer's disease markers in nonhuman primates, National Science Foundation)

In an instant, without the least sound to warn us of his coming, the garden gate swung open, and a lithe, dark figure, as swift and active as an ape, rushed up the garden path.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He did not ape.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In South America there are, if my memory serves me—you will check the observation, Professor Summerlee—some thirty-six species of monkeys, but the anthropoid ape is unknown.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If I don't like a thing, I don't like it, that's all; and there is no reason under the sun why I should ape a liking for it just because the majority of my fellow-creatures like it, or make believe they like it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Suddenly it rained apes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And you cleanse your eyes in a great brightness, and thrust your shoulders among the stars, doing what all life has done, letting the 'ape and tiger die' and wresting highest heritage from all powers that be.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)