Careful Words

mock (n.)

mock (v.)

mock (adj.)

Perhaps 't is pretty to force together

Thoughts so all unlike each other;

To mutter and mock a broken charm,

To dally with wrong that does no harm.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Christabel. Conclusion to Part ii.

  Fools make a mock at sin.

Old Testament: Proverbs xiv. 9.

  Thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!

Confusion on thy banners wait!

Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing,

They mock the air with idle state.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Bard. I. 1, Line 1.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

  Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now; your gambols, your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.