personate

verb

1. (transitive)To fraudulently portray another person; to impersonate.

   “But this latter has, at the suggestion of Tyndarus, exchanged clothes with him, and the slave[…] personates the master.”

   “Dr. Olivant had, in fact, been faced with the alternative of personating a specialist who could be referred to at any time or of inventing a fictitious one who might be less convincing but who would be more elusive.”

2. (transitive)To portray a character (as in a play); to act.

   “The antients would certainly have invoked the goddess Flora for this purpose, and it would have been no difficulty for their priests, or politicians to have persuaded the people of the real presence of the deity, though a plain mortal had personated her and performed her office.”

3. (transitive)To attribute personal characteristics to something; to personify.

   “One do I personate of Timon's frame , Whom Fortune with her iv'ry hand wafts to her”

   “Therfore though Leuy receiued tithes aftervvard, by a particular grant from GOD, for the time: yet novv he paide them generally vvith the congregation, in the loines of Abram vnto the Prieſthood of Chriſt, heere perſonated by Melchiſedeck: […]”

4. (transitive)To set forth in an unreal character; to disguise; to mask.

   “a personated mate”

5. (obsolete, transitive)To celebrate loudly; to extol, to praise.

   “I vvill drop in his vvay ſome obſcure Epiſtles of loue, vvherein by the colour of his beard, the ſhape of his legge, the manner of his gate, the expreſſure of his eye, forehead, and complection, he ſhall finde himſelfe moſt feelingly perſonated.”

   “In fable, hymn, or song so personating / Their gods ridiculous.”

adj

1. (not-comparable, uncommon)Having the throat of a corolla nearly closed by a projection of the base of the lower lip (reminiscent of a mask), as in the flower of the snapdragon.

   “This arrangement is well typified in plants with a personate corolla, such as the toad-flax and snap-dragon, ...”

   “[…] the commencement of the tube of a personate or labiate flower.”

   “Bumble bees are a sturdy race of insects, made to crowd, push, probe, and burrow; therefore they prefer a tubular or bell-shaped flower that they can enter, or a personate or papilionaceous flower that they can force, or a tubular ...”

   “Botanically, the palate is a rounded prominence on the lower lip, closing or nearly closing the throat of a personate flower.”