emulate

Striving to excel, ambitious, emulous.

Adjective

  1. Striving to excel, ambitious, emulous.
    • That can I, At leaſt the whiſper goes ſo : Our laſt King, Whoſe Image euen but novv appear'd to vs, VVas (as you know) by Fortinbras of Norvvay, (Thereto prick’d on by a moſt emulate Pride) Dar’d to the Combate. - c....

Origin

First attested in 1586; borrowed from Latin aemulātus, perfect active participle of Latin aemulor (“to rival, emulate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Forms

more emulate most emulate æmulate

Related

copy imitate mimic simulate

Verb

  1. To attempt to equal or be the same as.
  2. To copy or imitate, especially a person.
    • People are endlessly fascinating, even if you'd never want to emulate them.
    • The Magpies are unbeaten and enjoying their best run since 1994, although few would have thought the class of 2011 would come close to emulating their ancestors. - 2011 October 1, Saj Chowdhury, “Wolverhampton 1 - 2...
  3. To feel a rivalry with; to be jealous of, to envy.
    • But the councell then present emulating my successe, would not thinke it fit to spare me fortie men to be hazzarded in those unknowne regions [...]. - 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page...
  4. of a program or device: to imitate another program or device

Forms

emulates emulating emulated æmulate

Related

emulation emulative emulator emulous simulate

Derived

emulable emulatable emulation emulative emulator emulatory unemulated