English Explanatory Dictionary

copycat

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. One who imitates or plagiarizes the work of others.
  2. A criminal who imitates the crimes of another; specifically, a criminal who commits the same crime, especially a highly-publicized one, that has recently been committed by someone else.
adj
  1. Imitative; unoriginal.
verb
  1. To act as a copycat; to copy in a shameless or derivative way.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-copycat.wav /kɑpiˈkæt/

Word forms

copycat copycats copy cat copy-cat more copycat most copycat copycatting copycatted

Etymology

Originally American English, from copy + cat (“a former derogatory term for a person”).

Derived words

copycatism copycatter
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on C Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary