ˈmockage Now rare or Obs.
[f. mock n. + -age.
Very common in the 16th and 17th centuries.]
1. a. The action or an act of mocking; mockery, ridicule, derision; a derisive utterance or action.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur ix. i. 338 In mockage ye shalle be called la cote male tayle. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 608 The Frenshe Gaguyne bryngeth in a matier of game, as he rehersith, to the mockage of Englisshmen. 1535 Coverdale Isa. xiv. 4 Then shalt thou vse this mockage vpon y⊇ kinge of Babilon. 1548 Gest Pr. Masse D ij, What an vnsufferable mockedge is this aswel of god as of our soueraygne lord y⊇ king. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. xx. (1634) 743 Christians ought truly to bee a kinde of men..open to the malice, deceits, and mockages, of naughty men. 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1663) 38 In a mockage they tried the sharpnesse of their swords upon the dead bodies. 1607 R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders 347 Turned into a matter of merriment and mockage of poore Saint Peter. a 1677 Manton Serm. Ps. cxix. 52 (1681) 347 Their Derision and Mockage of Godliness ceaseth. a 1916 A. R. Macewen Hist. Church in Scotl. (1918) II. xxvii. 176 In their mockage they termed every thing that repugned to their corrupt affections ‘devout imagination’. 1922 E. A. Parry What Judge Thought viii. 133 It is interesting to remember that in Lewis Carroll, an ironist of a different type from Maule, we have another example of a deeply scientific mathematician revelling in the expression of ludicrous antiphrasis and quaint ridicule and mockage of commonplace humanity. |
b. The fact or condition of being mocked.
| 1534 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) G ij, The woorkes of the peple ar holden in mockage with wyse men. 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 344 Which then brought youth into a fooles Paradise, and hath now cast age into an open mockage. a 1656 Hales Gold. Rem. iii. (1673) 36 It is but an errour to think that God is a party capable of mockage and illusion; no art, no fineness can circumvent or abuse him. |
2. An object of mockery.
| 1535 Coverdale Jer. xxv. 9, I will make of them a wildernesse a mockage and a continuall deserte. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. Concl. 53 Nay, Law is made a mockage, and a scorne. 1657 Reeve God's Plea 23 Man..was the spoil of time, the mockage of fortune, and image of consistency. a 1677 Manton Serm. Ps. cxix. 83 (1681) 553 Though scorned and made a mockage [1725 mock] by those that..lived in pomp and splendor, yet his zeal was not abated. |
3. Mimicry, close imitation; concr. something that mocks or resembles, a counterfeit.
| 1615 J. Stephens Ess. & Char., A Ranke Observer (1857) 160 Whilst he meanes to purge himself by observing other humours, he practises them by a shadow of mockage. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies iii. i. 397, I can believe..that there are such Mockages of Humane Nature by Sea, as an Ape is on the Mountain. |