impersonate
verb /ɪmˈpɜːsəneɪt/
/ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they impersonate | /ɪmˈpɜːsəneɪt/ /ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪt/ |
| he / she / it impersonates | /ɪmˈpɜːsəneɪts/ /ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪts/ |
| past simple impersonated | /ɪmˈpɜːsəneɪtɪd/ /ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪtɪd/ |
| past participle impersonated | /ɪmˈpɜːsəneɪtɪd/ /ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form impersonating | /ɪmˈpɜːsəneɪtɪŋ/ /ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪtɪŋ/ |
- impersonate somebody to pretend to be somebody in order to trick people or to entertain them
- He was caught trying to impersonate a security guard.
- They do a pretty good job of impersonating Laurel and Hardy.
Word Originearly 17th cent. (in the sense ‘personify’): from in- ‘into’ + Latin persona ‘person’, on the pattern of incorporate.