IMITA'TION, noun [Latin imitatio; imitor, to imitate.]

1. The act of following in manner, or of copying in form; the act of making the similitude of any thing, or of attempting a resemblance. By the imitation of bad men or of evil examples, we are apt to contract vicious habits. In the imitation of natural forms and colors, we are often unsuccessful. imitation in music, says Rousseau, is a reiteration of the same air, or of one which is similar, in several parts where it is repeated by one after the other, either in unison, or at the distance of a fourth, a fifth, a third, or any interval whatever. imitation in oratory, is an endeavor to resemble a speaker or writer in the qualities which we propose to ourselves as patterns.

2. That which is made or produced as a copy; likeness; resemblance. We say, a thing is a true imitation of nature.

3. A method of translating, in which modern examples and illustrations are used for ancient, or domestic for foreign, or in which the translator not only varies the words and sense, but forsakes them as he sees occasion.