Imitating (5)
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">imitating</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">('ape' can be a synonym of 'imitate')</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for aping that I've seen before include "Imitation" , "Making copy of" , "Mimicking like monkey" , "Taking off" , "Trying to repeat" .)
(Another definition for ala that I've seen is " side petal".)