Meaning of Idiom “Copycat”
1. someone who is influenced by someone else and imitates or copies another person’s appearance, actions, ideas, work, etc.
2. someone who commits crimes, especially murder, in the same way as someone else, especially in regards to a notorious criminal.
3. (adjective) something that is a close copy or imitation of something else, such as a product or work of art.
4. (verb) to behave like a copycat, i.e. closely imitate something such as another person’s actions, etc.
Sentence Examples
“She’s such a copycat. He always buys the same clothes as me and even drives the same car!”
“My brother used to call me a copycat because I would imitate him. He never realized I was mocking him on purpose.”
“It’s a cheap copycat of a Samsung phone, but it works fine.”
“The stores were full of copycat watches with imitative names like Salico for Seiko.”
“The police have determined that these are the actions of a copycat killer.”
Examples From Movies and TV
“Were you one of those despicable spies who tried to steal my life’s work and sell it to parasitic, copycat, candy-making cads?” “No, sir.” “Then wonderful. Welcome back.” Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
“She hasn’t got an alibi. She hasn’t got a motive, either. Believe me, her defense would just beat us to death with this copycat thing. Anybody who read the book could have done it.” Basic Instinct (1992)
“Talk to me about the new case. Is it a copycat killer? You think he’ll kill again?” Anamorph (2008)
Origin of the Term Copycat
Copycat has been used in English since at least the late 1800s. It is found in print as early as 1887 in a memoir by Constance Cary Harrison, who wrote:
Oh, dear! I must do something to redeem my character. Our body say you are a copy cat if you write in anything that’s already been printed, but here have I found such a nice card…
It is not clear how the expression is being used, in this passage as today, being a copycat has nothing to do with writing “in” something that has already been printed. It could be that the author meant to copy something from another printed source. In any case, this passage serves to indicate that the idiom may have already been in use by that time.
How cat came to be associated with copying or imitating is unclear but is most likely simple alliteration between the word cat and copy, as cats certainly do not imitate what humans do in any way, nor do they imitate each other in any meaningful way.