From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmimemime1 /maɪm/ noun [countable, uncountable]AP the use of movements to express what you want to say without using words, or a play where the actors use only movements The children learn through role-play, dance and mime. They will perform a short mime later. a professional mime artist
Examples from the Corpus
mime• I peer through the window to the side of the door and a mime is in progress, a woman energetically vacuuming.• We expect reality but mime is not bound by such limitations.• Clark is wonderful in the role, which is mostly mime and dance.• One performer did a silly mime during the overture.• Her authoritative performance made the superb mime and rhythms invigorating to watch.• This mime of his never failed to invoke my deep defensiveness with regard to all things Kip.• They suggest approaching the average and below-average children through mime, dance and personal composition.• There was mime and a resolutely modern organ piece one evening, between announcements and prayers.mime artist• This area is always full of interest: mime artists, solo guitarists and full-blown jazz bands entertain the passing public.mimemime2 verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 APTto describe or express something, using movements not words Stan put a finger to his mouth, miming ‘shush’.mime doing something Soundlessly, she mimed picking up a phone and speaking into it.2 to pretend to play or sing a piece of music, without making any soundmime to Singers on television often mime to pre-recorded tapes.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
mime• They mimed a tug of war.• Phagu mimed back that we had no choice.• Everywhere he went running, running, running; and on the spot he mimed it.• Soundlessly she mimed picking up a phone and speaking into it.• Langford is pointing at him, his face in profile miming shock-horror: a lost joke.• I mimed that this was not necessary but he insisted.• Every derangement of the page-space deftly mimes the current derangement of the house-space in the narrative.• Chutra and Koju mimed their technique.Origin mime1 (1600-1700) Latin mimus, from Greek mimos “copier, mimic” 