Ĭm’ĭ-tā’tĭve1, a.
a. [Fr. imitatif; It. & Sp. imitativo.]
- Inclined to imitate, copy, or follow; imitating; exhibiting, or designed to exhibit, an imitation of a pattern or model; as, man is an imitative being; painting is an imitative art.
- Formed after a model, pattern, or original.
This temple, less in form, with equal grace, Was imitative of the first in Thrace. Dryden. Imitative music, that which is composed in imitation of the effects of some of the operations of nature, art, or human passion, as the rolling of thunder, agitations of the sea, roaring of beasts, warbling of birds, and the like; also of the tones of the passions. Moore.