Definition of APE

Choose the Right Synonym for ape

Verb

copy, imitate, mimic, ape, mock mean to make something so that it resembles an existing thing. copy suggests duplicating an original as nearly as possible. copied the painting and sold the fake as an original imitate suggests following a model or a pattern but may allow for some variation. imitate a poet's style mimic implies a close copying (as of voice or mannerism) often for fun, ridicule, or lifelike imitation. pupils mimicking their teacher ape may suggest presumptuous, slavish, or inept imitating of a superior original. American fashion designers aped their European colleagues mock usually implies imitation with derision. mocking a vain man's pompous manner

Examples of ape in a Sentence

Noun

Her boyfriend's some big ape she met at a party.

Verb

She apes the speech and manners of the rich. was caught aping the substitute teacher's thick accent

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Scientists studying bones unearthed from an ancient tomb in China’s Shaanxi Province have discovered the remains of a new but totally extinct species of ape. — James Rogers, Fox News, "Mysterious remains of extinct ape discovered in ancient Chinese tomb," 22 June 2018 King Kong appears as an obstacle in the race, and rather than pattern him after more recent film versions of the giant ape, the team decided to emulate the 1933 stop-motion puppet from the classic RKO film, using the latest digital technology. — Mekado Murphy, New York Times, "How They Made the Movie References Pop in ‘Ready Player One’," 27 Apr. 2018 If mythical creatures aren't your thing, the sprinkler also comes in five other styles: a dinosaur, pink and blue elephant, monster, and ape. — Kelly O'sullivan, Country Living, "Every Summer BBQ Needs This 7-Foot-Tall Unicorn Sprinkler," 15 Mar. 2018 What Gimlin's camera sees is a strange, large, ape-like figure limbering on its hind legs across a clearing. — Matt Blitz, Popular Mechanics, "Science Meets Legend: The Story of Our Search for Bigfoot," 8 Oct. 2018 While the adults primarily walked on two feet like humans do today, 3.3 million years ago children exhibited some ape-like qualities that allowed them to venture up trees. — Lilly Price, USA TODAY, "Ape-like toddlers climbed trees 3.3 million years ago, fossil suggests," 5 July 2018 When her tomb near Xi’an was excavated in 2004, archaeologists found in it the remains of a leopard, a lynx, a crane and a gibbon—a type of small ape. — The Economist, "A new species of gibbon is found in a 2,200-year-old tomb," 23 June 2018 For a franchise that has embraced a rally monkey and a full gorilla, the Angels are not quite ready to go ape. — Billy Witz, New York Times, "The Shohei Ohtani Rules: Handling a Two-Way Experiment With Care," 27 Apr. 2018 As the study's author Isabelle Laumer explained in a press statement, the apes excelled. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Orangutans Are Better Than Children at Making Tools, Study Finds," 12 Nov. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Spikes of creamy white astilbe mimicked Mona Lisa’s skin tone, and the long seed heads of the andromeda aped her fingers and added a tawny layer. — Lindsey Taylor, WSJ, "If the ‘Mona Lisa’ Were Made of Flowers...," 7 Aug. 2018 Ostpunk was crude and derivative, but the Ostpunks were doing more than aping Western poses. — Dominic Green, WSJ, "‘Burning Down the Haus’ Review: East German Punks," 20 Sep. 2018 Both parties signed the form and put their fingerprints on it, dipping their index fingers into bright purple ink, a gesture that aped one of the bureaucratic procedures of the Iraqi government. — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, "The Case of the Purloined Poultry: How ISIS Prosecuted Petty Crime," 1 July 2018 Gillespie, who went on to ape some of Stewart’s hard-edge messaging, lost by a landslide to Democrat Ralph Northam in November. — Laura Vozzella, Washington Post, "‘My opponent likes to praise and encourage white supremacists,’ Kaine tells crowd.," 17 June 2018 And Mr Ortega is aping the repression of the Somozas. — The Economist, "Daniel Ortega is causing a bloodbath in Nicaragua," 12 July 2018 Lumberjacks and the hipster bartenders who ape their style have long favored Pendleton’s flannel overshirts. — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, "When It’s Super-Hot, This is Your Workwear Solution," 21 June 2018 Many of its propaganda tools merely aped the sorts of chauvinist and ethno-nationalist sentiment that Mr Trump and other right-wing politicians have long used to charge up their base. — The Economist, "The Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki," 5 July 2018 Facebook’s tendency to ape competing products can be a major threat to smaller companies; Snapchat’s recent troubles have been attributed in part to Facebook copying many of its features. — Bloomberg, Fortune, "Tinder's Parent Company Is Buying an Anti-Tinder Dating App," 21 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

Why are characters always going in circles, whether physical (jogging astronaut) or metaphorical (repetitious ape routines)? — Peter Opaskar, Ars Technica, "2001 in 70mm: Pod bay doors look better than ever, still won’t open," 21 July 2018 In these tales, the animals are sometimes more human-like and, other times, more ape-like. — Matt Blitz, Popular Mechanics, "Science Meets Legend: The Story of Our Search for Bigfoot," 8 Oct. 2018 In the fourth toe, the metatarsal head was domed just like a modern human’s, but other aspects of the shape of the bone looked more ape-like. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "The road to bipedalism wasn’t straight and narrow," 15 Aug. 2018 And the shape of the big toe stayed decidedly more ape-like until much later in our lineage, too. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "The road to bipedalism wasn’t straight and narrow," 15 Aug. 2018 Orangutan If there was ever a time to compare this activity to The Truman Show, watching our seemingly self-aware ape friend at the San Diego Zoo would be it. — The Editors, Outside Online, "The Definitive Ranking of the Best Animal Livestreams," 14 June 2018 Here’s just one component — research shows that the perception of black people as subhuman and ape-like directly informs the public’s view of whether police brutality against a black suspect is deserved. — Ellen Mcgirt, Fortune, "raceAhead: Can Starbucks Change America?," 31 May 2018 The park consulted with the Center for Great Apes, a non-profit great-ape sanctuary in Central Florida, to move Mei for surgery. — Chabeli Herrera, miamiherald, "Monkey Jungle has reopened. Here is what has happened since the animal-abuse allegations.," 12 July 2018 Jungers holds open the possibility that the Shangchen toolmaker was a species of Australopithecus, a group of more ape-like hominins to which the iconic fossil Lucy belongs. — Colin Barras, Scientific American, "Tools from China are Oldest Hint of Human Lineage Outside Africa," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ape.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.