take the mickey

English

Alternative forms

• mickey-take
• take the Michael
• take the mick
• take the micky

Etymology

Possibly from Cockney rhyming slang “to take the Mickey Bliss” (for take the piss).

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

take the mickey (third-person singular simple present takes the mickey, present participle taking the mickey, simple past took the mickey, past participle taken the mickey)

1. (intransitive, British, slang, idiomatic) To ridicule or mock.

   Synonyms: take the piss; see also Thesaurus:mock

   Are you takin’ the mickey? You’ll get yer ’ead bashed in.

   • 2008 November 15, Kenneth Nguyen, “Who's laughing now?”, in The Age newspaper‎^[1]:

     For the last eight years, taking the mickey out of George Bush has been great, victimless fun. Like taking candy from babies or shooting aquatically-challenged fish in size-challenged barrels.

Translations

to ridicule or mock

• German: sich lustig machen über, verarschen (de)
• Hungarian: ugrat (hu), húz (hu), szórakozik (hu)
• Icelandic: stríða (is), grínast, taka vindinn úr
• Polish: robić sobie jaja (pl) impf
• Russian: насмеха́ться (ru) n (nasmexátʹsja), издева́ться (ru) n (izdevátʹsja), дразни́ть (ru) n (draznítʹ)
• Welsh: herian (cy)

Further reading

• taking the piss on Wikipedia.Wikipedia