Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various tailless Old World primates of the superfamily Hominoidea, including the gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans.
- noun Any of various members of this superfamily bearing fur and usually living in the wild, especially orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, in contrast to humans. Not in scientific use.
- noun A tailed primate such as a monkey. Not in scientific use.
- noun A mimic or imitator.
- noun Informal A clumsy or boorish person.
- transitive verb To imitate or mimic, especially in a thoughtless or inept way. synonym: imitate.
- idiom (go ape) To become wildly excited or angry.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To imitate servilely; mimic, as an ape imitates human actions.
- Synonyms Mimic, etc.
- noun A monkey; a quadrumanous animal; some animal of the old order Quadrumana; a member of one of the modern families Simiidœ, Cynopithecidœ, and Cebidœ, especially one which attracts attention by mimicking man.
- noun More specifically, a tailless monkey; a monkey with a very short tail; a magot, macaque, or pig-tailed baboon: as, the Barbary ape (Inuus ecaudatus); the Celebes black ape (Cynopithecus niger).
- noun Technically, a man-like monkey; a simian proper, or a member of the modern family Simiidœ, forming a kind of connecting link between man and the lower animals, and hence termed anthroid (which see).
- noun An imitator; a mimic.
- noun A mischievous or silly mimic; hence, a fool; a dupe.
- noun Gunnera petaloidea, a plant of the high mountain slopes of Hawaii, bearing large, broad, reniform leaves from two to three feet in width.
- noun A name in the Hawaiian and Society islands of Alocasia macrorhiza, an aroid plant with large, oval, sagittate leaves.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To mimic, as an ape imitates human actions; to imitate or follow servilely or irrationally.
- noun (Zoöl.) A quadrumanous mammal, esp. of the family
Simiadæ , 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 calledanthropoid apes orman apes . - noun One who imitates servilely (in allusion to the manners of the ape); a mimic.
- noun obsolete A dupe.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun zoology A
primate of theclade Hominoidea , generally larger thanmonkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail. - noun Any such primate other than a human.
- noun derogatory An uncivilised person.
- verb intransitive To
behave like an ape. - verb transitive To
imitate ;mimic . - adjective
Wild ;crazy .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb imitate uncritically and in every aspect
- verb represent in or produce a caricature of
- noun any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all
- noun person who resembles a nonhuman primate
- noun someone who copies the words or behavior of another
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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May be they are veridical observations of some enormous rare ape mistaken for an ˜ape - man™ or may be just erroneous observations of sociopaths in Yak coats?
Semantic Challenges to Realism Khlentzos, Drew 2004
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Chuen of the Maya calendar, which corresponds to the day Ozomatli, the ape, in the Aztec calendar, seems to indicate that the singular head of C is that of an _ape_, whose lateral nasal cavity (peculiar to the American ape or monkey) is occasionally represented plainly in the hieroglyph picture.
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The project was started by the philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri, who argued that the ape is the closest genetic relative to humans — that it displays emotions such as love, fear, anxiety and jealousy — and should be protected by similar laws.
Spanish Parliament Approved ‘Human Rights’ for Apes | Disinformation 2008
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On the top of this tree, in among the branches, sat a monkey -- at least so Ailie called it; but the term ape or baboon would have been more appropriate, for the creature was a very large one, and, if the expression of its countenance indicated in any degree the feelings of its heart, also a very fierce one -- an exceedingly ferocious one indeed.
The Red Eric 1859
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1 Due to its ambiguous nature, the term ape is less suitable as a means of describing taxonomic relationships.
Ardi is a million years older than Lucy - The Panda's Thumb 2009
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(#2: The giant ape is defeated after the woman he groped and stalked wins a multi-million dollar harassment suit.)
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A few other primates, such as the Barbary Ape, have the word ape in their common names usually to indicate lack of a tail, but they are not regarded as true apes.
Ardi is a million years older than Lucy - The Panda's Thumb 2009
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Why a fit, tall & healthy female ape is not as attractive as a cover girl?
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Krause, as already commented at "The ape is on my father's side, mind you", regarding John Hawks, we are definitely into the "Post-Wedgin 'Away" era.
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She answered, “This whom thou deemest an ape is a young man, a clever and polite, a wise and learned and the son of a King; but he is ensorcelled and the Ifrit Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis, cast a spell upon him, after putting to death his own wife the daughter of King Ifitamus lord of the Islands of Abnus.”
likaluca commented on the word ape
as in "to mimic" -- it's just not very interesting when only speaking of the animal.
January 31, 2007
seanahan commented on the word ape
A very common crossword puzzle answer.
February 1, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word ape
In Italian, this word means bee.
May 22, 2010