mickey

Syllables: mick·eyUK/ˈmɪki/

mickey noun: the smallest distance that a computer mouse can move a cursor on a screen, which is used to measure the device's resolution or sensitivity. Also the abbreviation of Mickey Bliss.

Noun (1)

mickey (plural mickeys)

The smallest distance that a computer mouse can move a cursor on a screen, which is used to measure the device's resolution or sensitivity.
- The Mmove_ratio method controls the ratio of physical mouse movement to screen cursor movement with the x- and y-axis arguments (xsize and ysize) expressed as the number of mickeys (units of mouse motion) required to cover eight pixels on the screen. […] [T]he appropriate values are dependent on...1990 July, Ben Ezzell, “An Object-oriented Mouse”, in Turbo C++ Programming: An Object Oriented Approach, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 97
(Australia, informal) The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), a honeyeater endemic to eastern and southeastern Australia.
(Australia, slang) A young bull, especially one which is unbranded and running wild; a bullock.
- The cattle slayers had gone their way, with their smoking rifles and the mob of "mickies" they intended, somewhere in the fastnesses of the ranges, to brand and make legally, as far as the letter of the law went, their own.[1927], M[abel] Forrest, chapter 12, in Hibiscus Heart, London: Hutchinson & Co., →OCLC, page 124
- Bronco horse pulling a ‘micky’ (young bull) up for branding.2005, Jack Drake, The Outback vs the Wild West, Moorooka, Brisbane, Qld.: Boolarong Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 155
(Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, rare, slang) The vulva.
- Can't blame her for it, 'cause her mickey was probably throbbin' for it.1975, Don [J.] Townshend, chapter 26, in Virginity Stakes, Woollahra, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Books in association with Collins, published 1983, →ISBN, page 206
(Canada, informal) A small bottle of liquor, such as whiskey, usually holding 375 millilitres (13.2 imperial fluid ounces; 12.7 U.S. fluid ounces), typically shaped to fit in one's pocket.
- While you’re at the liquor store, get a mickey of rye.
- "But," said the cook, "if we was in the city I'd take fifty cents of it purty, pronto and get myself a four-bit micky." / "A what?" I asked, mystified. / "A four-bit micky, a fifty-cent bottle of alcohol—Dr. Hall, white line," he translated in disgust. "If you're goin' west you better learn to talk...1926 September, Jack Black, chapter VI, in You Can’t Win, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published December 1926, →OCLC, page 66
(Ireland, slang) The penis.
- He fell off the bike and injured his mickey.
- Ill put on my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out of that to make his micky stand for him […]1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 18: Penelope]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 729
(UK, informal) In take the mickey: a person's (false) pride, which is criticized through disparagement or ridicule; piss.
- 'Higgsy,' said the sergeant, 'they think I'm taking the mickey. Tell 'em.'1948, Alexander Baron, “The Doggy Boys”, in From the City, from the Plough, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Ives Washburn, published 1949, →OCLC, page 49
(New-York-City, US, dated, slang) A potato or sweet potato; specifically, one roasted over a fire outdoors.
- We roasted mickeys over a fire with two-foot sticks.
- dippy runs down the street waving two potatoes. / dippy: Hey, guys, I swiped two maw [more] mickeys. Look!1936, Sidney Kingsley, Dead End: A Play in Three Acts, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, Act III, page 122

Verb

mickey (third-person singular simple present mickeys, present participle mickeying, simple past and past participle mickeyed)

(transitive) Sometimes followed by up: short for mickey-finn (“to drug (someone) with a Mickey Finn (“an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink deliberately doctored with a drug intended to quickly render the drinker unconscious”); to secretly put a drug into (someone's drink) to render them unconscious”).
- Sam said he hadn't mickeyed me. That meant that he had either prepared a mickey at someone else's order, without knowing for whom it was intended, or he had seen someone else do the concocting.1951, Robert O. Saber, The Scented Flesh (A Handi-book Mystery; 124), Kingston, N.Y.: Quinn Publishing, →OCLC, page 46
- You mickeyed my drink, didn't you? […] You know why I don't drink. You know why I don't do dope. And you mickeyed my drink. You son of a bitch.1994, Dana Stabenow, chapter 10, in A Cold Blooded Business, London: Head of Zeus, published 2013, →ISBN, page 200

Proper noun capitalized: Mickey

Mickey

A diminutive of the male given name Michael.
A diminutive of the female given names Michaela and Michelle.

Noun (2) capitalized: Mickey

Mickey (plural Mickeys)

(informal, rare) A Mickey Mouse cartoon.
(derogatory, offensive, slang) A Roman Catholic person.
(US, derogatory, offensive, slang) An Irishman.
- National identity and ethnic origin mapped gang territory: ‘Little Italy’; ‘Little Sicily’; ‘Polish colony’; […] ‘Mickies’ (Irish). Each possessed demarcated districts within which gangs adopted neighbourhood names and tags […]2011, Barry Goldson, Youth in Crisis?: ‘Gangs’, Territoriality and Violence, page 90
(abbreviation, slang) Short for Mickey Finn (“an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink deliberately doctored with a drug intended to quickly render the drinker unconscious”).
(historical, slang) A type of bombsight assisted by radar.

Also used as

mickey is also the abbreviation of Mickey Bliss.

mickey is also the alternative letter-case form of Mickey.

mickey is also the abbreviation of Mickey Mouse.

Examples of mickey in a sentence

Default values are 8 mickeys/8 pixels horizontal and 16 mickeys/8 pixels vertical.1990 July, Ben Ezzell, “An Object-oriented Mouse”, in Turbo C++ Programming: An Object Oriented Approach, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley...
An American pint holds 16 ounces, a Canadian "mickey," 12 ounces of rye, or 13 ounces of Scotch.1950, Horace Sutton, “The Facts of Life in Canada”, in Footloose in Canada, New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Rinehart & Company, →OCLC, page...
I know where to get some sweet mickeys off the truck.1988 August 15, Don DeLillo, Libra, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, part 1, page 8:
No question now, as far as she was concerned, that someone had mickeyed his beer.2005 April, Christopher Golden, chapter 5, in Wildwood Road (A Bantam Spectra Book), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Dell, →ISBN, page 65:

All 19 example sentences with mickey

Forms of mickey

Noun
plural	mickeys
plural	Mickeys
alternative form	mickey
Adjective
comparative	more mickey
superlative	most mickey
Verb
third-person singular present	mickeys
present participle	mickeying
past participle	mickeyed
past	mickeyed
Proper noun
alternative form	Micky

Plural of mickey: mickeys

Origin of mickey

Alternative letter-case form of Mickey (noun), from Mickey (“diminutive of the male given name Michael”, proper noun), from Mick (“diminutive of the male given name Michael”) + -ey (a variant of -y (diminutive suffix)). Noun sense 1 (“smallest distance that a computer mouse can move a cursor”) refers to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse. Noun sense 5 (“penis”), noun sense 7.1 (“Irishman”), and noun sense 7.2 (“potato; sweet potato”) refer to the fact that since the 17th century Michael and its diminutives Mick, Mickey, and Mike have been one of the most common names in Ireland, and to the prevalence of potatoes in the Irish diet; compare murphy (“potato”). Noun sense 6.2 (“in take the mickey: (false) pride”) possibly refers to the use of Mickey Bliss as rhyming slang for piss (“act of urinating”); compare take the piss and noun sense 6.1. The adjective is short for Mickey Mouse, which is rhyming slang for grouse (“(Australia, New Zealand, slang) excellent”). The verb is short for mickey-finn, from Mickey Finn; compare noun sense 7.3.

The proper noun is derived from Mick (“diminutive of the male given name Michael”) + -ey (a variant of -y (diminutive suffix)). The common noun is derived from the proper noun. Noun senses 1 (“Mickey Mouse cartoon”) and 3.2 (“type of bombsight assisted by radar”) are short forms of Mickey Mouse. Noun sense 2 (“synonym of Mick”) refers to the fact that since the 17th century Michael and its diminutives Mick, Mickey, and Mike have been one of the most common names in Ireland, and that many Irish people are Roman Catholic. Noun sense 3.1 is a short form of Mickey Finn.

Words formed from mickey

Words that rhyme with mickey

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mickey

What does mickey mean?: Mickey means the smallest distance that a computer mouse can move a cursor on a screen, which is used to measure the device's resolution or sensitivity.
How do you use mickey in a sentence?: Default values are 8 mickeys/8 pixels horizontal and 16 mickeys/8 pixels vertical.
What part of speech is mickey?: Mickey can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mickey?: Mickey is pronounced /ˈmɪki/ (UK).
What is the plural of mickey?: The plural of mickey is mickeys.

Words near mickey in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mickey (page history and authors); Mickey (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-mickey.wav, En-ca-mickey.ogg, En-au-Mickey.ogg.

Cite this entry: “mickey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mickey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.