▪ I. mocking, vbl. n.
(ˈmɒkɪŋ)
[f. mock v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb mock; the utterance of derision or scorn; imitation, mimicry. Now only gerundial. Also occas. † an object of derision.
| c 1440 Boctus (Laud MS. 559 lf. 5 b), This came to Boctus the kyng All in scorne and in mokkyng. 1539 Tonstall Serm. Palm Sund. (1823) 12 He was obediente to suffre the mockynge of the people of Jewes. 1607 Shakes. Timon i. i. 35 It is a pretty mocking of the life. 1611 Bible Ezek. xxii. 4 Therfore haue I made thee..a mocking to all countries. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. i. (1674) 1 These false Cheaters..mind only mocking and cosenage. |
† b. mocking-stock, a laughing-stock. Obs.
Very common in 16–17th c.
| 1526 Tindale 2 Pet. ii. 13 Off you they make a mockyng-stoke. 1534 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1192/2 The Philisties..vsing Sampson for their mocking stocke in scorne of God. 1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 208 The wisest persons made but a mocking-stocke of his vanity. 1791 Walker, Mocking-stock, a butt for merriment. 1833 H. Martineau Charmed Sea viii. 122 How should you bear to be made..a mocking-stock while you were full of gloomy wrath? |
▪ II. mocking, ppl. a.
(ˈmɒkɪŋ)
[-ing2.]
That mocks, ridicules, deludes, or mimics.
| 1530 Palsgr. 720/1, I skorne one with mockynge wordes, je raffarde. 1588 Shakes. L. L. L. ii. i. 52 Some merry mocking Lord belike, ist so? 1592 Davies Immort. Soul Introd. xx, The great mocking Master mock'd not then, When he said, Truth was bury'd here below. 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 286 A mocking contradiction of Mr. Johnson. 1720 J. Hughes Siege Damascus ii. ii, I am dar'd to it, with mocking scorn. 186. Darwin Orig. Spec. xiii. (1866) 507 But if we proceed from a district where one Leptalis imitates an Ithomia, another mocking and mocked species belonging to the same genera, equally close in their resemblance, will be found. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 187 The savages, as the mocking tongues of the Normans called them. |