Word.ws English Dictionary

taking the piss

taking the piss is the present participle and gerund of take the piss.

Meaning of take the piss

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
  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!

Questions about taking the piss

What is taking the piss the present participle and gerund of?
Taking the piss is the present participle and gerund of take the piss.

Words near taking the piss in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking the piss (page history and authors); 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.

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