take the mickey
take the mickey verb: to ridicule or mock someone; to make fun of someone.
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)
- To ridicule or mock someone; to make fun of someone.
- Are you takin’ the mickey? You’ll get yer ’ead bashed in.
- 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.2008 November 15, Kenneth Nguyen, “Who's laughing now?”, in The Age newspaper
Synonyms of take the mickey
23 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of take the mickey
| third-person singular present | takes the mickey |
|---|---|
| present participle | taking the mickey |
| past | took the mickey |
| past participle | taken the mickey |
| alternative form | mickey-take |
| alternative form | take the Michael |
| alternative form | take the mick |
| alternative form | take the micky |
Origin of take the mickey
Possibly from Cockney rhyming slang “to take the Mickey Bliss” (for take the piss).
Questions about take the mickey
- What does take the mickey mean?
- Take the mickey means to ridicule or mock someone; to make fun of someone.
- What part of speech is take the mickey?
- Take the mickey is a verb.
- What is the past tense of take the mickey?
- The past tense of take the mickey is took the mickey.
Words near take the mickey in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: take the 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-take the mickey.ogg.
Cite this entry: “take the mickey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_the_mickey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.