mice
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //maɪs//
To be distracted or inattentive (possibly alluding to a cat being distracted by a mouse).
noun
- 1
Also a form of mouseplural of mouse
Etymology
From Middle English mys, mice, muis, mise, mis, from Old English mȳs (“mice”), from an umlauted form of Proto-Germanic *mūsiz (“mice”), nominative and vocative plural of Proto-Germanic *mūs (“mouse”). Compare Scots mice, mise, myse, myce (“mice”), West Frisian mûzen (“mice”), Dutch muizen (“mice”), German Mäuse (“mice”), Swedish möss (“mice”), Faroese mýs (“mice”), Icelandic mýs (“mice”). More at mouse.
verb
- 1
To be distracted or inattentive (possibly alluding to a cat being distracted by a mouse).
That cat's mysin, he doesn't see the dog coming.
A breakfast diner might describe an incident with someone who was "not too tightly wrapped". Or not wanting to waste time on someone who was always "micin". Another breakfast guest might explode with "what'chu mean?", only to be told half-jokingly, “Bie ... shut yor mouth”.
Forms
- past tense
- miced
- past participle
- miced
- present participle
- micing
- third person singular
- mices
mice · To be distracted or inattentive (possibly alluding to a cat being distracted by a mouse).
Michael · A male given name from Hebrew.Michaels · A surname.Michel · A male given name from French, equivalent to English Michael.