mockery

From Middle English mokkery, from Anglo-Norman mokerie, mokery and Middle French mocquerie, moquerie, from moquer, moker (“to mock”) + -erie (“-ery”), perhaps from Byzantine Greek μωκός (mōkós, “mocker”), perhaps from Arabic مَكْر (makr, “scheme, plot”). Equivalent to mock +‎ -ery.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒkəɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑkəɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

mockery (countable and uncountable, plural mockeries)

1. The action of mocking; ridicule, derision.
2. Something so lacking in necessary qualities as to inspire ridicule; a laughing-stock.
3. (obsolete) Something insultingly imitative; an offensively futile action, gesture etc.
4. Mimicry, imitation, now usually in a derogatory sense; a travesty, a ridiculous simulacrum.

   The defendant wasn't allowed to speak at his own trial - it was a mockery of justice.

• We often use make a mockery of someone or something, meaning to mock them. See also Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

• See also Thesaurus:ridicule