Taking the piss

Usage

The term sometimes refers to a form of mockery in which the mocker exaggerates the other person's characteristics, pretending to take on their attitudes, etc., for the purpose of comedic effect at their expense. This would be described as "taking the piss" out of that person, or "a piss-take". It may also be used for a ruse in which a person is led to believe a plainly unbelievable fact for the purpose of ridiculing them.

The other form refers to any situation where a second party takes more than their fair share ("Give them an inch and they'll take a mile"), their behaviour causes aggravation, or something far exceeds what is expected or wanted (e.g. "£10 for a burger—that's taking the piss!").

The phrase is in common use throughout Britain and to a lesser extent Ireland, being employed by headline writers in broadsheet gazettes and tabloids, as well as colloquially. It is also used in other English-speaking countries, such as Australia.

Origin

"Take the piss" may be a reference to the related (and dated) idiomatic expression piss-proud, which is a vulgar pun referring to the morning erection that a man may have when he awakens or may be caused by a full bladder pressing upon nerves that help affect an erection. This could be considered a "false" erection, as its origin is physiological, not psychosexual, so in a metaphoric sense, then, someone who is "piss-proud" would suffer from false pride, and taking the piss out of them refers to deflating this false pride, through disparagement or mockery. As knowledge of the expression's metaphoric origin became lost on users, "taking the piss out of" came to be synonymous with disparagement or mockery itself, with less regard to the pride of the subject.

"Take the mickey" may be an abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang "take the Mickey Bliss", a euphemism for "take the piss". The phrase has been noted since the 1930s.

References

References

1. "take the piss".
2. Roberts, Chris. (2006). "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme". Thorndike Press.
3. Thorpe, Vanessa. (18 November 2007). "Taking the Mickey out of Saatchi". The Guardian.
4. (21 April 2003). "Taking the Mickey". The Sydney Morning Herald.
5. (17 January 2007). "To mitigate Gibbs outburst is simply taking the Mickey". The Age.
6. Quinion, Michael. (14 August 1999). "Take the piss". World Wide Words.
7. Martin, Gary. "Take the Mickey". The Phrase Finder.
8. (2014). "PECULIARITIES OF COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG". Studia Universitatis Petru Maior.Philologia.
9. (22 April 2006). "When Michael was taken out, and down a peg". [[Sydney Morning Herald]].