Mouseketeer

English

Etymology

Blend of mouse +‎ musketeer, from the Mickey Mouse ears worn by the performers.

Noun

Mouseketeer (plural Mouseketeers)

1. Any of the child or teenage performers featured in the American television variety show The Mickey Mouse Club.
   • 1982 August, Deirdre English, “We oughta be in pictures”, in Mother Jones Magazine, volume 7, number 7:

     Yes, I became one of those confused children in the school cafeteria who failed to identify with one of the Mouseketeers; one of those who flubbed in food fights because I had not sufficiently studied my friends' mentors […]

   • 1989, M J Adamson, April When They Woo:

     And that cartel's got a network that makes the CIA look like Mouseketeers.

   • 2004, Robert William Kubey, Creating television:

     The research for that really disturbed me because so many of the Mouseketeers were living lives of quiet desperation. They hadn't profited emotionally, or financially, or professionally.