Stop taking the Mickey!
Stop making fun of me!
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The school is big and I'm from another country and I'm scared that people will TAKE THE MICKEY out of me.
(BBC News)
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Apparently there are a few websites out there set up just to TAKE THE MICKEY out of me!
(The Guardian Online)
(BBC News)
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Apparently there are a few websites out there set up just to TAKE THE MICKEY out of me!
(The Guardian Online)
Did you
know?
take the Mickey (British)
idiom
- to laugh at someone and make them seem silly, by copying their behaviour or tricking them in a funny or unkind way
(Oxford Compact English Dictionary)
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Take the Mickey is an abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang "take the Mickey Bliss," meaning to take the piss out of someone, which is colloquial for "tease or make fun of."
After all, a 2004 international survey found out that Britons like to have fun and are considered "cleverly humorous." That is unless someone tries to take the Mickey out of a football team. A pub landlady once had to pay a £400 fine for displaying a rude football scarf taking the Mickey out of a rival team.
She was taken to court when a policeman spotted the offending item. She was found guilty of "displaying any writing sign or visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting and likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress".
Fans from both teams seemed to find the scarf rather funny. As one fan put it, "Newcastle fans take the Mickey out of us and we take it out of them, that's the way it works." No one is quite sure which team the police officer supports, but you could certainly make an educated guess.
(source: BBC News)
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SYNONYMS
poke fun at, deride, heckle, kid, lampoon, make fun of, make sport of, mock, parody, ridicule, tease
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"In the US people are very sensitive about minorities - especially race and gender, so use caution when you take the Mickey out of someone."
idiom
- to laugh at someone and make them seem silly, by copying their behaviour or tricking them in a funny or unkind way
(Oxford Compact English Dictionary)
---
Take the Mickey is an abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang "take the Mickey Bliss," meaning to take the piss out of someone, which is colloquial for "tease or make fun of."
After all, a 2004 international survey found out that Britons like to have fun and are considered "cleverly humorous." That is unless someone tries to take the Mickey out of a football team. A pub landlady once had to pay a £400 fine for displaying a rude football scarf taking the Mickey out of a rival team.
She was taken to court when a policeman spotted the offending item. She was found guilty of "displaying any writing sign or visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting and likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress".
Fans from both teams seemed to find the scarf rather funny. As one fan put it, "Newcastle fans take the Mickey out of us and we take it out of them, that's the way it works." No one is quite sure which team the police officer supports, but you could certainly make an educated guess.
(source: BBC News)
---
SYNONYMS
poke fun at, deride, heckle, kid, lampoon, make fun of, make sport of, mock, parody, ridicule, tease
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"In the US people are very sensitive about minorities - especially race and gender, so use caution when you take the Mickey out of someone."
