to take the mickey
1
9.1
- phrasal verb
- /teɪk ðə ˈmɪki/
- Slang
:
burlarse
- She was just taking the mickey with her funny impersonations of our teachers.
KSI mixes it with pros and it's all like people taking the Mickey out of his style and doing the old arm flaps and all that.
- KSI mixes it with pros and it's all like people taking the Mickey out of his style and doing the old arm flaps and all that.
- They used to take the, take the Mickey, flip her foot, blah, blah, blah.
Examples
-
Because we'd take the mickey out of her if she did.
-
Over the last couple of days, I've been remembering how, as a child, I could not manage to sit 'properly' in assemblies and was often told off for fidgeting and wriggling. I've remembered how the other children at school and on the estate where I lived would take the mickey out of me when I ran, as my left leg would stick out at a funny angle.
Blog text (30) -
lf l ever took the mickey #
-
To cap it all, he was using a posh voice; was he taking the mickey?
Fiction book (2000) -
Stupid, Elspeth wanted to shout, don't you know they take the mickey out of you every chance they get?
Fiction book (1996) -
It's hard work, and don't go taking the mickey out of teen mums.
Blog text (9) -
KSI mixes it with pros and it's all like people taking the Mickey out of his style and doing the old arm flaps and all that.
-
As she walked to the car and drove to her father's, she wondered whether the twins, like her, had seen the shoplifter, or had merely been taking the mickey out of the guard, pretending interest in that frightful tie?
Fiction book (1996) -
The prosecutor said Cawley came onto the pitch after Leeds scored, and when he stood in front of Kirkland, the keeper thought it was someone just "excessively celebrating" or "taking the mickey."
Blog text (17) -
We often take the mickey out of each other during lunch at work.
Synonyms
∞
3.5
To tease someone in a friendly, playful way
307
2.3
Laugh at someone or say things that make them feel embarrassed
245
1.9
To make fun of someone in a way that annoys them
80
2.9
Say something funny, often unkind, about someone or something
25
3.9
To make jokes about someone to make them look silly
23
3.4
To make jokes about someone, sometimes to be playful and sometimes to be unkind
2
7.5
To laugh at someone and say unkind things about them
1
8.1
To tease someone in a playful way
1
8.7
To make a playful joke or trick someone to make them laugh
1
9.9
To tease someone in a friendly, playful way
1
9.0
To tease or nag someone, often in a playful way
To tease someone by joking about them in a friendly way
Tease someone by making jokes about them
To tease someone in a playful way
To make fun of someone in a playful way
Laugh at someone or treat something serious as a joke
Antonyms
How Teasing
- Offensive
108
4.6
- Offensive
209
3.4
- Slang
1
9.1
- Offensive
23
3.4
245
1.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
take + the + mickey
The sense 'to tease or make fun of' cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'take' + 'the' + 'mickey'—the noun 'mickey' does not transparently contribute 'mock' and 'take' does not mean 'mock' here. This is a regionally idiomatic British slang expression with historical slang origins, so its meaning is unpredictable for a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The idiom take the mickey likely comes from old British slang where people used the softer word mickey instead of a rude word meaning 'to make fun'. So take the mickey came to mean 'to tease or make fun of someone'.