[f. prec. sb.]
1. To imitate, mimic: a. pretentiously, irrationally or absurdly.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, IV. iv. Why should you ape The fashions of court-ladies?
1713. Addison, Cato, I. ii. Curse on the Stripling! how he apes his Sire!
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 179, ¶ 3. When they assume the dignity of knowledge, or ape the sprightliness of wit.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., x. (1878), 172. That foolish emulation which makes one class ape another from afar.
b. in a good or neutral sense. rare.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 15. The women imitate (or ape) the men.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 124. Alabaster … which apes ivory in the whiteness and smoothness thereof.
1663. Sir G. Mackenzie, Relig. Stoic, xiii. (1685), 119. Art, which is man’s offspring, doth ape nature.
1835. Sir J. Ross, N.-W. Pass., xvi. 252. Their method of hunting reindeer … consists in aping the appearance of the animal.
2. To ape it: to play the ape, mimic the reality.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Def. Protector, 2. What’s a Protector? He’s a stately Thing, That Apes it in the Non-age of a King.
1672. Jacomb, Rom., viii. (1868), 304. The devil who loves to ape it after God.
1683. trans. Erasm. Mor. Encom., 81. One apes it about in the streets, to court popularity.
