— imitator , n.
/im"i tayt'/ , v.t., imitated, imitating .
1. to follow or endeavor to follow as a model or example: to imitate an author's style; to imitate an older brother.
2. to mimic; impersonate: The students imitated the teacher behind her back.
3. to make a copy of; reproduce closely.
4. to have or assume the appearance of; simulate; resemble.
[ 1525-35; imitatus ptp. of imitari to copy, presumably a freq. akin to the base of imago IMAGE ]
Syn. 2. ape, mock. 3. IMITATE, COPY, DUPLICATE, REPRODUCE all mean to follow or try to follow an example or pattern. IMITATE is the general word for the idea: to imitate someone's handwriting, behavior. To COPY is to make a fairly exact imitation of an original creation: to copy a sentence, a dress, a picture. To DUPLICATE is to produce something that exactly resembles or corresponds to something else; both may be originals: to duplicate the terms of two contracts. To REPRODUCE is to make a likeness or reconstruction of an original: to reproduce a 16th-century theater.