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Glite Dictionary
to take the pee

to take the pee

9.9
To tease someone by joking about them in a friendly way
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk ðə piː/
  • Slang
translation icon : burlarse
  • They often take the pee out of each other in a playful way.

Examples

  • He loves to take the pee out of his friends during their weekly gatherings.

  • You're taking the pee.

    Give Them Wings (2021)

  • When she joked about his mishap on stage, I knew she was just taking the pee.

Synonyms

to kid
vsto take the pee
  • Informal
∞ 3.5

To tease someone in a friendly, playful way

can be similar but sometimes sounds more mocking than friendly
to make fun of
vsto take the pee
  • Offensive
307 2.3

Laugh at someone or say things that make them feel embarrassed

is often lighter and more joking rather than unkind or cruel
to joke about
vsto take the pee
80 2.9

Say something funny, often unkind, about someone or something

is more about teasing a person directly rather than general humor
to poke fun
vsto take the pee
  • Offensive
25 3.9

To make jokes about someone to make them look silly

focuses more on teasing or derision rather than general silliness
to poke fun at
vsto take the pee
  • Offensive
23 3.4

To make jokes about someone, sometimes to be playful and sometimes to be unkind

leans more toward teasing specifically aimed at a person
to make sport of
vsto take the pee
  • Offensive
2 7.5

To laugh at someone and say unkind things about them

is lighter and tends to be more joking than mean spirited
to take the mickey
vsto take the pee
  • Slang
1 9.1

To tease someone by making jokes about them in a friendly way

is the same teasing but may carry more derisive tone sometimes
to pull someone's leg
vsto take the pee
  • Informal
1 4.1

To tell someone something that is not true to make them laugh

uses direct teasing rather than tricking someone with falsehoods
to take the pee out of
vsto take the pee
  • Offensive
9.9

Tease someone by making jokes about them

is similar but not limited to British informal speech
to guy
vsto take the pee
  • Informal
7.0

To make fun of someone in a playful way

is the same idea but often with less direct mockery
to make game of
vsto take the pee
  • Offensive
8.0

Laugh at someone or treat something serious as a joke

focuses more narrowly on teasing a person lightly rather than ridicule

Antonyms

compliment
342 1.6

A polite remark that praises someone or something

praise
161 1.0

Words or actions that show admiration for someone

How Teasing

to ridicule
  • Offensive
108 4.6
to mock
  • Offensive
209 3.4
to take the pee
  • Slang
9.9
to poke fun at
  • Offensive
23 3.4
to tease
245 1.9

Surface Forms

take the pee infinitive
taking the pee present participle
takes the pee third person singular
took the pee past
taken the pee past participle

Morphology

take + the + pee

The sense 'to mock or tease' cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'take' + 'the' + 'pee' (where 'pee' = urine); there is no compositional link between bodily fluid and teasing. This is a colloquial idiom (variant of 'take the piss'/'take the mickey') whose meaning is conventionalized and culture-specific, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer it.

Etymology

Take the pee may come from an old rude image: one popular story says people would pretend to steal a man's private pee to show disrespect. So to take someone's pee came to mean 'to mock or tease' someone.