APE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Ape

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noun

Ape n.

(Zool.) A quadrumanous mammal, esp. of the family Simiadae, having teeth of the same number and form as in man, and possessing neither a tail nor cheek pouches. The name is applied esp. to species of the genus Hylobates, and is sometimes used as a general term for all Quadrumana. The higher forms, the gorilla, chimpanzee, and ourang, are often called anthropoid apes or man apes. Note: The ape of the Old Testament was probably the rhesus monkey of India, and allied forms.

One who imitates servilely (in allusion to the manners of the ape); a mimic.

A dupe. (Obs.)

verb

Ape v. t. (past & past part. aped; pres. part. aping) To mimic, as an ape imitates human actions; to imitate or follow servilely or irrationally. "How he apes his sire." "The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried."

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Etymology of 'Ape'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ape" Quotes from Famous Books

... were they human, but their original instincts their creator's skill had failed to eliminate. All their lives were one long torture. The Law said, "We are men and women; this we shall do, this we shall not do." But the ape and tiger still ...

— The Angel and the Author - and Others • Jerome K. Jerome

... he replied; "why, my good friend, the girl was christened Judy—plain Judy; but now that they've got into high-flown life, you persave, nothing will sarve them but to ape their betthers. However, never mind, I'll see the day yet, and that before long, when saucy Judy won't refuse my assistance. Time about's fair ...

— The Tithe-Proctor - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... O reader. This is he, with the old ape-face renewed by paint, whom we once saw marching with an "Army of Redemption," haggling in the Passes about Eger, unable to redeem Belleisle; marching and haggling, more lately, with a "Middle-Rhine Army," and the like non-effect; since ...

— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVI. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great--The Ten Years of Peace.--1746-1756. • Thomas Carlyle

... to see how some Christian parents, who live in humble life, seek to ape, in their children, the empty sounding titles of the world. They only show their vanity and weakness, and often bring ...

— The Christian Home • Samuel Philips

... Bed; the Arras, Figures, Why such, and such: and the Contents o'th' Story. Ah, but some naturall notes about her Body, Aboue ten thousand meaner Moueables Would testifie, t' enrich mine Inuentorie. O sleepe, thou Ape of death, lye dull vpon her, And be her Sense but as a Monument, Thus in a Chappell lying. Come off, come off; As slippery as the Gordian-knot was hard. 'Tis mine, and this will witnesse outwardly, ...

— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

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