Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to tease; thus mickey-take, mickey-taking, mickey-taker (cf. extract the Michael v.).

1895		Tower Hamlets Indep. 7/3: He then threw two pewter pots through the window. When charged he said, ‘He tried to take a mike out of me, and I took one out of him’.
1895		Croydon Times 27 Nov. 3/2: He was very drunk, used bad language, and said he only wanted to take a ‘mike’ out of witness, who then took him Into custody.
1911		Gravesend & Northfleet Standard 25 Apr. 3/1: P.C. ’s Hancock and Palmer proved the case, stating that defendant had said no one in Bexley could take the ‘mike’ out of him.
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 121: But mate, you let the flight down, when he takes the mike out of you every time.
1923		Leics Dly Mercury 26 May 7/5: ‘It’s like this — a man in a motor car was trying to take the ‘Mickey’ out of me, and I just ‘opened out’ to him down’.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 11: Everyone round here takes the mike outa him just because he wears glasses and can’t talk without stammering, but my Ernie’s worth ten of your tu’penny ha’penny boxers.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 117: Do you know what happens to saucy lags who try to take a mike out of me?
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 190: Are you trying to take the mike out of me? Or are you just potty?
1948		A. Baron From City, from Plough 49: ‘Higgsy,’ said the sergeant, ‘they think I’m taking the mickey. Tell ’em’.
1952		J. Henry Who Lie in Gaol 66: ‘She’s a terror. I expect she’ll try and take the mickey out of you all right. Don’t you stand for nothin’’.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 285: If it so happens that the tormentors are taking a (or the) mike out of their victim, their intention is to wound or insult.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 36: He might be taking the mickey or he might be about to turn nasty.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 98: Don’t take the mickey out of ’er—leave ’er be, poor bitch.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 343: The blokes from the laundry [...] all got the mike taken out of them.
1958		C. Lee diary 29 July in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 152: I thought he was taking the mick, but he’s real enough.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 217: The Camberwell tough mutters ‘I don’t take the mic-mac. Put your dukes up. Hold that.’.
1960		A. Burgess Doctor Is Sick (1972) 57: If I saw you in the street, and we both the way we are now, I’d think you was taking the mike out of me.
1962		A. Wesker Chips with Everything I ii: Spend the next five minutes taking the mickey out of my accent, get it off your chest.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ Cockade (1965) I iii: They were taking the mick.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene ii: fred (taking the micky): You devil!
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 184: Took the mickey out of me somethin’ rotten they did.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 34: Everyone in here just stood off at a distance and went no further than take the mickey out of him.
1999		Guardian 14 Oct. 5: I was just taking the mick out of the sometimes overpretentious aspect of English literature.
1999		Indep. Rev. 23 July 2: It’s a little too late now to take the mickey out of the C of E.
2000		Guardian G2 17 Feb. 3: All right, treacle, no need to take the Mickey Bliss.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Mag. 9 Apr. 62: There was a serious side to our natures but we took the mickey.
2002		M. Coles More Bible in Cockney 94: Look here, you mickey-takers!
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 59: I carried on staring at it [i.e. a poster] even as Amit started takin the mick.

2. (US) to demoralize, take the fight out of.

1973

J. Godey Taking of Pelham One Two Three 234: He recalled what he had told the commissioner earlier—that he wouldn’t be the same man after this was over. It was true. It had taken the mickey out of him.