imitate vs follow suit

imitate and follow suit both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
imitate	No	No	Yes	No
follow suit	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, follow suit is a hyponym of imitate; that is, follow suit is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than imitate:

Other hyponyms of imitate include ape, emulate.

imitate (verb)	follow suit (verb)
reproduce someone's behavior or looks	do what someone else is doing
make a reproduction or copy of
appear like, as in behavior or appearance