Word.ws English Dictionary

take the piss

take the piss verb: to tease, ridicule or mock (someone).

Verb

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

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To tease, ridicule or mock (someone).
    • You know, cos he was like taking the piss out of them and they took the piss out of him.1987, Judy Vermorel, Sex Pistols: the inside story, page 16
    • A lot of that stuff that people take the piss out of all the time is actually useful.1999, Carole Zucker, In the company of actors: reflections on the craft of acting, page 152
  2. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To subject those present to teasing, ridicule or mockery, or to show contempt.
    • He's either taking it easy or taking the piss by arriving at the eleventh hour.2008, Will Swanton, Some Day: Inside the Dream Tour and Mick Fanning's 2007 Championship Win
  3. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To be outrageously unreasonable.
    • I've got three exams on the same day! That's taking the piss!

Synonyms of take the piss

Forms of take the piss

third-person singular presenttakes the piss
present participletaking the piss
pasttook the piss
past participletaken the piss
alternative formpiss-take
alternative formpisstake

Origin of take the piss

Possibly from piss-proud (“falsely presenting as successful”). In which case taking the piss out of would mean deflating their false pride, usually through disparagement or mockery. As the piss-proud metaphor became dated, taking the piss out of someone came to refer to disparagement or mockery itself, regardless of the pride of the subject. Eventually the shortened, intransitive form taking the piss became common.

Questions about take the piss

What does take the piss mean?
Take the piss means to tease, ridicule or mock (someone).
What part of speech is take the piss?
Take the piss is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the piss?
The past tense of take the piss is took the piss.

Words near take the piss in the dictionary

  1. take the mick
  2. take the mickey
  3. take the micky
  4. take the offensive
  5. take the pee
  6. take the piss
  7. take the place of
  8. take the pledge
  9. take the plunge
  10. take the point
  11. take the purple

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the piss (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 piss.ogg.

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