mickey
mickey Lexical Profile
mickey Game Scores & Validity
• noun
British Mockery, teasing, or playful derision, used almost exclusively in the phrase 'take the mickey'.
"His older brothers were always taking the mickey out of his overly formal accent."
North American An alcoholic beverage surreptitiously laced with a fast-acting sedative, hypnotic, or incapacitating drug in order to render the drinker unconscious (short for Mickey Finn).
"In the classic detective novel, the private investigator suspected the bartender had slipped him a mickey before searching his coat pockets."
Canadian A flat, pocket-sized bottle of hard liquor holding 375 milliliters (approximately 13 fluid ounces).
"They picked up a mickey of rye whiskey from the liquor store before heading out to the cabin."
Word Nuance & Usage
In British and Commonwealth English, 'mickey' is most commonly encountered in the fixed idiom 'take the mickey (out of)', meaning to tease or ridicule. In North America, it refers either to an illicitly drugged drink (short for 'Mickey Finn') or, specifically in Canada, to a 375-milliliter flask of liquor.
• Rhymes for mickey
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
The North American sense of a drugged drink is shortened from 'Mickey Finn', named after a late 19th-century Chicago saloonkeeper alleged to have incapacitated and robbed patrons. The British sense used in 'take the mickey' derives from Cockney rhyming slang 'Mickey Bliss' for 'piss' (as in 'take the piss').