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mike

nounverbnounnountop 1 000 in film dialogue

  • //ˈmaɪk//

A microphone.

noun

  1. 1

    informalA microphone.

    1970, Theodore Sturgeon and Edward H. Waldo, "The Pod in the Barrier", in A Touch of Strange, Ayer Publishing, →ISBN, page 28, "Then I say to the recording, for the record," I barked, right into the mike, […]

    1981, John Swaigen, How to Fight for What’s Right: The Guide to Public Interest Law, James Lorimer & Company, →ISBN, pages 118–119, Obviously, one must watch what one says in the vicinity of a microphone. More than one person has made a “private” statement in the presence of an open mike.

    2007, John Sellers, Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 85, When the haggard bartender informed us that there would be an open-mike event later in the evening, I got my first sense that not everyone in Manchester cared about the music the city has produced.

Etymology

Alteration of mic, clipping of microphone. Attested since 1927.

verb

  1. 1

    To microphone; to place one or more microphones (mikes) on.

    1996, J.R. Robinson, quoted in Mark Huntly Parsons, The Drummer’s Studio Survival Guide: How to get the best possible drum tracks on any recording project, Hal Leonard, →ISBN, page 72, He knows me, I know him, and I know how he’s going to mike the drums and what selection of mic’s he's going to use.

    2006, Glenn Haertlein, Project Vectus, Lulu, →ISBN, page 108, “Zeb, is everything go on the AV equipment?” I heard Jim ask. ¶ “Yep,” Zeb replied. “I just need to mike him up.” […] “All set,” he said once he clipped the wireless microphone to my shirtfront.

  2. 2

    To measure using a micrometer.

    1983, Tom S. Wilson, How to Rebuild Your Big-block Chevy, HPBooks, →ISBN, page 98, Measure Valve-Stem Diameter—To be positive about it you’ll have to mike the valve stem with a 1-in. micrometer as explained on pages 100 and 101.

noun

  1. 1

    slangA minute.

    We'll be there in one zero mikes [i.e. ten minutes].

  2. 2

    Variant of Mike from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic AlphabetAlternative letter-case form of Mike from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

Etymology

From translingual Mike, representing the letter m, from English Mike.

noun

  1. 1

    Variant of microgramslangClipping of microgram.

    The beginner's dose may be anywhere from 100 to 250 mikes — micrograms, or millionths of a gram. Most hardened heads need 600 to 800 mikes, and some as many as 1,400 mikes, before they experience any sensation of getting off.

Forms

plural
mikes
past tense
miked
past participle
miked
present participle
miking
third person singular
mikes
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).