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mickey

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Mickey

English

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WOTD – 13 January 2026

Etymology

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Alternative letter-case form of Mickey (noun), from Mickey (“diminutive of the male given name Michael”, proper noun), from Mick (“diminutive of the male given name Michael”) +‎ -ey (a variant of -y (diminutive suffix)).[1]

Noun sense 1 (“smallest distance that a computer mouse can move a cursor”) refers to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

Noun sense 5 (“penis”), noun sense 7.1 (“Irishman”), and noun sense 7.2 (“potato; sweet potato”) refer to the fact that since the 17th century Michael and its diminutives Mick, Mickey, and Mike have been one of the most common names in Ireland,[2][3] and to the prevalence of potatoes in the Irish diet; compare murphy (“potato”).

Noun sense 6.2 (“in take the mickey: (false) pride”) possibly refers to the use of Mickey Bliss as rhyming slang for piss (“act of urinating”); compare take the piss[1] and noun sense 6.1.

The adjective is short for Mickey Mouse, which is rhyming slang for grouse (“(Australia, New Zealand, slang) excellent”).

The verb is short for mickey-finn, from Mickey Finn;[4] compare noun sense 7.3.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mickey (plural mickeys)

  2. (computing) The smallest distance that a computer mouse can move a cursor on a screen, which is used to measure the device's resolution or sensitivity.
    • 1990 July, Ben Ezzell, “An Object-oriented Mouse”, in Turbo C++ Programming: An Object Oriented Approach, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 97:
      The Mmove_ratio method controls the ratio of physical mouse movement to screen cursor movement with the x- and y-axis arguments (xsize and ysize) expressed as the number of mickeys (units of mouse motion) required to cover eight pixels on the screen. […] [T]he appropriate values are dependent on the number of mickeys per inch reported by the physical mouse; values which may be 100, 200, or 320 mickeys per inch depending on the mouse hardware. Default values are 8 mickeys/8 pixels horizontal and 16 mickeys/8 pixels vertical.
  3. (Australia)
    1. (informal) The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), a honeyeater endemic to eastern and southeastern Australia. [from 1910s]
    2. (slang) A young bull, especially one which is unbranded and running wild; a bullock. [from 1860s]
      • [1927], M[abel] Forrest, chapter 12, in Hibiscus Heart, London: Hutchinson & Co., →OCLC, page 124:
        The cattle slayers had gone their way, with their smoking rifles and the mob of "mickies" they intended, somewhere in the fastnesses of the ranges, to brand and make legally, as far as the letter of the law went, their own.
      • 2005, Jack Drake, The Outback vs the Wild West, Moorooka, Brisbane, Qld.: Boolarong Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 155:
        Bronco horse pulling a ‘micky’ (young bull) up for branding.
        Originally published under the title The Wild West in Australia and America (2005).
  4. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, slang, rare) The vulva. [from early 1900s]
    • 1975, Don [J.] Townshend, chapter 26, in Virginity Stakes, Woollahra, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Books in association with Collins, published 1983, →ISBN, page 206:
      Can't blame her for it, 'cause her mickey was probably throbbin' for it.
      Originally published under the title Gland Time (1975).
  5. (chiefly Canada, informal) A small bottle of liquor, such as whiskey, usually holding 375 millilitres (13.2 imperial fluid ounces; 12.7 U.S. fluid ounces), typically shaped to fit in one's pocket. [from 1910s]
    Hyponym: Texas mickey
    While you’re at the liquor store, get a mickey of rye.
    • 1926 September, Jack Black, chapter VI, in You Can’t Win, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published December 1926, →OCLC, page 66:
      "But," said the cook, "if we was in the city I'd take fifty cents of it purty, pronto and get myself a four-bit micky." / "A what?" I asked, mystified. / "A four-bit micky, a fifty-cent bottle of alcohol—Dr. Hall, white line," he translated in disgust. "If you're goin' west you better learn to talk west."
    • 1950, Horace Sutton, “The Facts of Life in Canada”, in Footloose in Canada, New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Rinehart & Company, →OCLC, page 5:
      An American pint holds 16 ounces, a Canadian "mickey," 12 ounces of rye, or 13 ounces of Scotch.
  7. (chiefly Ireland, slang) The penis. [from 1900s]
    He fell off the bike and injured his mickey.
  8. (UK)
    2. (Cockney rhyming slang) Short for Mickey Bliss (“an act of urinating; a piss”).
    4. (informal) In take the mickey: a person's (false) pride, which is criticized through disparagement or ridicule; piss.
      • 1948, Alexander Baron, “The Doggy Boys”, in From the City, from the Plough, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Ives Washburn, published 1949, →OCLC, page 49:
        'Higgsy,' said the sergeant, 'they think I'm taking the mickey. Tell 'em.'
  9. (US, slang)
    2. (chiefly derogatory, offensive) Alternative letter-case form of Mickey (“an Irishman”). [from 1850s]
      • 1964, Conrad Aiken, “[Number] 5”, in A Seizure of Limericks, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →OCLC, page 5:
        There was an old micky named Cassidy / who was famed for impromptu mendacity. / When asked did he lie / he replied: to reply / would be to impugn his veracity.
    4. (chiefly New York City, dated) A potato or sweet potato; specifically, one roasted over a fire outdoors. [from 1930s]
      We roasted mickeys over a fire with two-foot sticks.
      • 1936, Sidney Kingsley, Dead End: A Play in Three Acts, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, Act III, page 122:
        dippy runs down the street waving two potatoes. / dippy: Hey, guys, I swiped two maw [more] mickeys. Look!
      • 1988 August 15, Don DeLillo, Libra, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, part 1, page 8:
        I know where to get some sweet mickeys off the truck. We go roast them in the lot near Belmont. They have sweet mickeys in the South down there?
    6. (originally US) Alternative letter-case form of Mickey (“a Mickey Finn: an alcoholic drink deliberately doctored with a drug intended to quickly render the drinker unconscious”). [from 1930s]
      Coordinate term: roofie
      He was slipped a mickey.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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mickey (comparative more mickey, superlative most mickey)

  2. (Australia, informal) Short for Mickey Mouse (“excellent, grouse”).

Translations

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Verb

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mickey (third-person singular simple present mickeys, present participle mickeying, simple past and past participle mickeyed)

  1. (transitive) Sometimes followed by up: short for mickey-finn (“to drug (someone) with a Mickey Finn (“an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink deliberately doctored with a drug intended to quickly render the drinker unconscious”); to secretly put a drug into (someone's drink) to render them unconscious”).
    • 1951, Robert O. Saber, The Scented Flesh (A Handi-book Mystery; 124), Kingston, N.Y.: Quinn Publishing, →OCLC, page 46:
      Sam said he hadn't mickeyed me. That meant that he had either prepared a mickey at someone else's order, without knowing for whom it was intended, or he had seen someone else do the concocting.
    • 1994, Dana Stabenow, chapter 10, in A Cold Blooded Business, London: Head of Zeus, published 2013, →ISBN, page 200:
      You mickeyed my drink, didn't you? […] You know why I don't drink. You know why I don't do dope. And you mickeyed my drink. You son of a bitch.
    • 2005 April, Christopher Golden, chapter 5, in Wildwood Road (A Bantam Spectra Book), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Dell, →ISBN, page 65:
      No question now, as far as she was concerned, that someone had mickeyed his beer.

Translations

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Compare “mickey, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2025; “mickey1, mickey3, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “Mick, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025.
  3. ^ “Mick, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  4. ^ “mickey, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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