mockery
(ˈmɒkərɪ)
Forms: 5 moquerye, mokkery, 5–6 mockerye, mocquery, 6 mockeri, Sc. mokrie, mockrie, 6–7 mockerie, 6– mockery.
[a. F. moquerie (13th c.), f. moquer to mock.]
1. Derision, ridicule; a derisive utterance or action.
| 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 13020 They be no thyng off myn allye; I haue off hem but moquerye. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 11 Reynart..shal thynke how he may begyle deceyue and brynge yow to some mockerye. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon liv. 182 Y⊇ paynym dyd gyue it to Huon in a mockery. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 101 b, All our saiynges were by the Frenche kyng turned into mocquery. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 193 b, This was the third mockeri of fortune that chaunced in Fraunce. 1563 Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 81 Studiing to thraw be his mokrie and bairding the mekle vertew and honor of his father to be a vyce [etc.]. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. vii. 43 The forlorne Maiden, whom your eies have seene The laughing stocke of fortunes mockeries, Am th' onely daughter of a King and Queene. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 123 Wherefore was I to this keene mockery borne? a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 270 Should a man be bidden to..walk steddily on his head, this would justly sound as a mockery. a 1719 Addison Chr. Relig. vii. Wks. 1766 III. 317 The insults and mockeries of a crouded Amphitheatre. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xx. 163 The heralds of Darius had been put to death with cruel mockery. 1860 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 61 ‘Mrs. Prudence’, as Mr. Barnes calls me in mockery. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1875) III. xii. 238 Laying himself open to the jeers and mockeries of his rebellious subjects. 1884 Gladstone in West. Daily Press 2 July 3/4 He was sorry that gentlemen with no knowledge of the subject should receive this remark with mockery. |
b. A subject or occasion of derision; a person, thing, or action that deserves or occasions ridicule.
| 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 38 Which thinges are doubtles to all that wise be, a very mockerye. 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 13, I conclude, that such fortifications in England are verie skornes and mockeries. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 4 What will be said, what mockery will it be? To want the Bride-groome when the Priest attends To speake the ceremoniall rites of marriage? 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 314 When the name of Jeremy Taylor is no longer remembered with reverence, genius will have become a mockery, and virtue an empty shade. 1849 James Woodman vii, As if he made a mockery of the very acquirements he boasted of. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. x. 311 Let no one yield to sleep, Lest we become the mockery of the foe. |
2. Mimicry, imitation; a counterfeit representation; an unreal appearance. Now only in indignant use, a contemptible and impudent simulation.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. Chor. 53 Yet sit and see, Minding true things, by what their Mock'ries bee. 1605 ― Macb. iii. iv. 107 Hence horrible shadow, Vnreal mock'ry hence. 1717 Pope Elegy Unfort. Lady 57 And bear about the mockery of woe To midnight dances, and the public show. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxvii. (1856) 225 It was a mockery of warmth, however, scarcely worthy the unpretending sincerity of the great planet. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 189 The unhappy monarch then went through the mockery of a trial for concealing his treasures. |
3. Ludicrously futile action; something insultingly unfitting.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. i. 146 It is as the Ayre, invulnerable, And our vaine blowes, malicious Mockery. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. I.) 398 It were a mockery to make choyce of sicke folkes, and..to put sovereign power into their hands, to the end onely to have them leave it to others. 1798 Monthly Mag. VI. 397 Although suffered to perish almost for the common necessaries, his body was ostentatiously carried to the grave in a hearse, accompanied by the mockery of a mourning-coach. 1852 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. xvii. 215 It is mockery, brethren, for a man to speak lightly of that which he cannot know. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola xxxvi, In her bitterness she felt that all rejoicing was mockery. |
4. attrib.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iv. i. 260 Oh, that I were a Mockerie, King [read Mockerie-king] of Snow, Standing before the Sunne of Bullingbrooke, To melt my selfe away in Water⁓drops. 1634 Ford Perkin Warbeck i. i, Still to be frighted with false apparitions Of pageant Majestie, and new-coynd greatnesse, As if wee were a mockery King in state. 1834 Tait's Mag. 131/1 Legitimacy is a mockery word in such a case. 1898 Watts-Dunton Aylwin xi, A monstrous mountainous representation of an awful mockery-goddess. |