Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mickey n.1

also mickie, micky

1. ext. or fig. uses of mick n.1 , pertaining to Irishness and its stereotypes.

2. (Aus.) an unbranded animal, a wild bullock; cite 1865 refers to a horse [? the stereotyped ‘wild Irishman’].

[Aus]Sydney Morn. Herald 26 Oct. 2/4: [I]t was ascertained that a ‘mickey’ signified an unbranded animal, and ‘duffing’ was the slang title for cattle stealing [...] ‘[H]e said he had run in a fine filly, a mickey, I understood by that it was an unbranded filly.
[Aus]A.C. Grant Bush-Life in Queensland I 227: There are three or four Mickies and wild heifers.
[[UK]Regiment 11 Apr. 31/1: A recruit is usually referred to as ‘Cruity,’ ‘Mickey,’ ‘Rooster,’ or ‘Johnny’].
[UK]Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
[UK]H. Macilwaine Dinkinbar 49: I hankered after the station any way, and the – and your infernal bullocks topped the market; and there’s not a mickey or a broken fence or gate on the run.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 171: Anything of the nature of post and rails is very terrifying to the uneducated ‘Mickies’ and ‘clear-skins’.
[UK]M. Forrest Hibiscus Heart 124: The mob of ‘mickies’ [...] somewhere in the fastnesses of the range.
[Aus]‘William Hatfield’ Sheepmates 244: Nothing pleased them more than for one of their number to be caught by a charging ‘Mickey’ [...] No one ever got hurt beyond a bruise or two from stumpy horns.
[UK] in E. Hill Territory.
[Aus]W.E. Harney Content to Lie in the Sun 75: We stockmen were after the wanted heifers and ‘mickies’ (young bulls) fleeing for safety.
[Aus]H. Lunn Behind Banana Curtain 86: Pat managed to round up several ‘Mickey’ bulls (uncastrated wild cattle).

(a) (US, also mikey) an Irish person.

[US]Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 11 Oct. n.p.: What makes that big Mickey, McR—y [...] put on so many airs?
[US] ‘The Divil’s own Boy’ in Fred Shaw’s Champion Comic Melodist 16: One Mickey Free, from Dublin town.
[US]‘Johnny Cross’ ‘Hail Columbia, Right Side Up’ in Orig. Pontoon Songster 37: Yankee Doodle and Mickey Free / Will soon shake their hands in union.
[Aus]S. James Vagabond Papers (4th Ser.) 71: Nearly every ‘Mickey’ and ‘Biddy’ throughout the States gave out of their hard earnings to help ‘Ould Ireland’.
[UK]Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Nov. 4/7: "Oh, d— it, Oi’m good for 45 anny way,’ responded the gallant Mickey.
[UK]E. Poole Harbor (1919) 17: I caught glimpses of strange, ragged boys. ‘Micks,’ Belle sometimes called them, and sometimes, ‘Finian Mickies’.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(b) (Aus./US) a Roman Catholic.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 14 May. 4/1: The ‘vision of Knock,’ as seen by various pious persons, still affords matter for the credulous conductors of the Weekly Mickey.
[Ire]R. Harbinson No Surrender n.p.: The mountain was inaccessible because to reach it we had to cross territory held by the Mickeys [BS].

(c) (US) a potato, esp. a roasted sweet potato.

[US]S. Kingsley Dead End Act III: Hey guys, duh mickeys ah awmost done!
[US]J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 22: Sometimes they roast mickies in the gutter fires.
[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 322: We stole our first mickies together from Gordon’s fruit stand.

3. (Irish, also mick) the penis; also attrib.

[Ire]Joyce letter 8 Dec. to Nora Barnacle in Ellman Sel. Letters (1975) 185: Gently take out your lover’s fat mickey, lap it up in your moist mouth and suck away at it till it gets fatter and stiffer and comes off in your mouth.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 729: Ill put on my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out of that to make his micky stand for him.
[US] in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 369: Got to get a little shaggin’ every day; / I leave my mark wherever I go, / With my long old horny mickabri-ne-o!
[Aus]D. Martin Hero of Too 315: ‘You made him his little mickey shield.’ [...] ‘the thing batsmen wear at cricket matches’.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
[Ire]T. Murphy Gigli Concert in Plays 3 (1994) Scene v: Trying to get my – my micky into her.
[Ire](con. 1930s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 109: The boys [...] spotted my unusual [i.e. circumcised] penis and started calling me ‘Mushroom Mickey’.
[UK]J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 130: Then he was still rolling about pulled his strides down poured some stuff over his hairy mick.
[Ire]D. Healy Bend for Home 264: He was old enough not to know a mickey from a pussy, shrieks Nancy.
[Ire]P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 235: Trevor’s as excited as a Frenchman with ten mickeys.
[Ire]P Howard Braywatch 35: ‘The geerdle said Rosser theer has a m … m … m … m … mickey on him like wooden of them spring r … r … r … r … rowults’.

4. (mainly Can./US black) a small bottle of wine or spirits [michael n. (1)].

[US]Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 58: micky [...] A corruption of Michael [...] a flask of liquor.
[US]J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 63: If we was in the city I’d take fifty cents of it purty pronto and get myself a four-bit micky [...] a fifty-cent bottle of alcohol.
[US]Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 53: micky, n. I. A drink of hard liquor. 2. A bottle of booze.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Mickey, half pint of bootleg whiskey.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 187: Many wines could be had in pint bottles, they too had their special names — short dog, puppy, mickey (little mouse).
[Can](con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 76: All they came up with was forty cents and a half mickey of moonshine.
[US]K. Anderson Night Dogs 241: The cops were their friends down there [i.e. skid row], protecting them [...] when they got knifed in some stumbling argument over a mickey of wine.
D. Bezmozgis ‘Minyan’ in Natasha 134: The Russian man [...] contributed a mickey of cheap vodka.

5. (Irish/Aus./N.Z.) the vagina.

[UK](con. 1930s) D. Behan Teems of Times and Happy Returns 143: ‘There was an old lady, God bless her, / Who threw her leg over a dresser, / The dresser was sticky an’ stuck to her mickey ...’ That’s what big people called dirty songs.
[Ire]B. Quinn Smokey Hollow 21: [as cit. 1961].
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 134: michael/mickey/mickeydidi The vagina, from obsolete English word mick, female genitals.

6. (US, also mickey’s) a knockout drug, usu. administered via an alcoholic drink [abbr. mickey finn n.].

[US] (ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 231: Some men were given mickeys, rolled, sandbagged, and even killed and dropped in the river.
[US]W. Winchell On Broadway 30 June [synd. col.] Now look, lady, please be quiet – we’re short of Mickeys!
[US]W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 171: He left a prescription. You just drop the stuff in his milk, like a mickey.
[US]C. Himes Big Gold Dream 140: So when she was getting herself baptized, I dropped a little mickey into her bottle of drinking water.
[US]Mt Vernon Register-News (IL) 1 May 5/5: His captor had to slip him a mickey to do it.
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 240: 2 or 3 guys were just laying around [...] it smelled like Mickey’s, well, a gringo’s got it coming. [...] I drink the Mickey, but I fool them. I walk right out.
[US]G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 62: mickey n Tranquilizer.

7. attrib. use of sense 6.

[US]Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 103: Sailors off the Bremen Heil-Hitler’d at the bar and got the mickey treatment.

8. (US prison) a fellow inmate.

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 138/2: Mick or micky. (P) An inmate of a penal institution. 2. A person.
[US]P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 264: I watched him huddle in a corner of the yard with all the green mickies.

9. (US) a fellow, a person.

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 138/2: Mick or micky. (P) [...] A person.
[US]P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 181: You must be new mickies ’cause you don’t call a ship a boat. Le’s see your papers. Messmen. Go on back aft and see the steward.

10. (US) aggressiveness, macho.

[US]E. Grogan Ringolevio 461: One of the round steel toes rammed clean into his balls, taking all the mickey out of him.

11. (N.Z. prison) a sleeping pill.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 116/1: Mickey (also Mickey Finn or Mickey Flynn) n. 1 a sleeping tablet.

12. (N.Z. prison) a marijuana cigarette .

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 116/1: Mickey a cigarette containing marijuana .

13. (N.Z. prison) constr. with the, the perfect example.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 116/2: mickey, the adj. good, excellent, the best (esp. applied to drugs).

In compounds

mickey drip (n.)

(Aus.) a Roman Catholic.

[Aus](ref. to 1950s) Aus. Word Map 🌐 Catholic (another rude shool child term of the 50s): All the mickey drips go to the convent school.

14. (N.Z. prison) a lesbian.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 116/2: mickey licker n. a lesbian.
mickey-muncher (n.)

(Aus.) a man who performs cunnilingus; thus mickey-munching adj.

[Aus]D. Maitland Breaking Out 169: You are a bloody lop-eared, [...] muff-diving, mickey-munching [...] fart-faced flip of a fucking galah!
[US]The Editor ‘Jackie’s Family Lessons’ 🌐 He was a fine mickey muncher. The fact that I was climaxing didn’t stop him for a second. He ate, licked, sucked, and loved every part of my cunt over and over, and he soon began to include my asshole in his rounds.

In phrases

chuck a mickey (v.) (also throw a mickey)

(Aus.) to lose one’s temper, to have a tantrum.

[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Ridge and River (1966) 84: She’d chuck a micky if you touched her where it wouldn’t show.
[Aus](con. 1940s) T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 12: He’s chucking a mickey!
M. Henry Unlucky Dip 90: Not that it was such a terrible thing really – but the Boss threw a mickey [AND].
L. Randall Aus. Family Plays 118: Don’t throw a micky, Bert, it only cost fourpence [AND].
[Aus]T. Astley Hunting the Wild Pineapple 139: You're like all southerners [...] They throw a mickey the first time they cop it.
[US]http://arstechnica.com 26 June 🌐 I bypassed Vista via linux till my wife chucked a mickey about it being so different to XP.
slip someone a mickey (v.) (also slip someone a Mickey Finn)

(US) to render a victim unconscious through adding a sedative, esp. chloral hydrate, to their drink.

[US]C. Willemse Cop Remembers 44: Whenever a troublesome character hung around the bars too long the bartenders slipped him a Mickey Finn, a violent purgative which was put into his drinks.
[US]Collier’s 98 37/3: You might remember the time he even slipped him a Mickey one night.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Daughter of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 Are you saying your mother’s business agent slipped you a mickey.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 217: Maybe you could slip the guy a mickey.
[UK]I, Mobster 68: If it’s some bitch from Park Avenue, slip her a micky.
[US]E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 151: The man you slipped the Mickey to before stealing his purse tells us you are not to be trusted.
[UK]Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 109: You mean you slipped him a Mickey Finn?
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 88: The crafty bitch had slipped me a Mickey!
[US]E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 155: Wendy Litman had managed to slip me a Mickey.
[UK]Jehst & Yungun ‘Outrageous’ 🎵 Slip a little mickey to them iced-out Cristal sippers.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Izzy was going to play the femme fatale [...] and slip the guy a Mickey.
take the mickey (v.)

see separate entry.