EMULATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does emulate mean? 

• EMULATE (verb)
  The verb EMULATE has 3 senses:

1. strive to equal or match, especially by imitating

2. imitate the function of (another system), as by modifying the hardware or the software

3. compete with successfully; approach or reach equality with

  Familiarity information: EMULATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EMULATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they emulate    ... he / she / it emulates   
Past simple: emulated   
Past participle: emulated   
-ing form: emulating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Strive to equal or match, especially by imitating

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

He is emulating the skating skills of his older sister

Hypernyms (to "emulate" is one way to...):

copy; imitate; simulate (reproduce someone's behavior or looks)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

emulation (effort to equal or surpass another)

emulation (ambition to equal or excel)

emulator (someone who copies the words or behavior of another)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Imitate the function of (another system), as by modifying the hardware or the software

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "emulate" is one way to...):

imitate (appear like, as in behavior or appearance)

Domain category:

computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

emulation ((computer science) technique of one machine obtaining the same results as another)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Compete with successfully; approach or reach equality with

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Context example:

This artist's drawings cannot emulate his water colors

Hypernyms (to "emulate" is one way to...):

compete; contend; vie (compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

emulation (effort to equal or surpass another)

emulation (ambition to equal or excel)

 Context examples 

Image quality that can serve as an example to be emulated (i.e., publication quality).

(Exemplary Quality, NCI Thesaurus)

Emma did not find herself equal to give the pleased assent, which no doubt he was in the habit of receiving, to emulate the Very true, my love, which must have been usually administered by his travelling companion; but she had resolution enough to refrain from making any answer at all.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Without emulating the feelings of an Emma towards her Henry, she would have attended on Louisa with a zeal above the common claims of regard, for his sake; and she hoped he would not long be so unjust as to suppose she would shrink unnecessarily from the office of a friend.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

We passed rapidly along; the sun was hot, but we were sheltered from its rays by a kind of canopy while we enjoyed the beauty of the scene, sometimes on one side of the lake, where we saw Mont Salêve, the pleasant banks of Montalègre, and at a distance, surmounting all, the beautiful Mont Blanc, and the assemblage of snowy mountains that in vain endeavour to emulate her; sometimes coasting the opposite banks, we saw the mighty Jura opposing its dark side to the ambition that would quit its native country, and an almost insurmountable barrier to the invader who should wish to enslave it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As his curate, his comrade, all would be right: I would cross oceans with him in that capacity; toil under Eastern suns, in Asian deserts with him in that office; admire and emulate his courage and devotion and vigour; accommodate quietly to his masterhood; smile undisturbed at his ineradicable ambition; discriminate the Christian from the man: profoundly esteem the one, and freely forgive the other.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was asserted that he had never written it, that the magazine had faked it very clumsily, or that Martin Eden was emulating the elder Dumas and at the height of success was hiring his writing done for him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)