mice

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.

• enPR: mīs, IPA^(key): /maɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪs

mice

1. plural of mouse

mice (third-person singular simple present mices, present participle micing, simple past and past participle miced)

1. (Bermuda, chiefly in the form micin) To be distracted or inattentive (possibly alluding to a cat being distracted by a mouse).
   • 1984, Peter A. Smith, Fred M. Barritt, Bermewjan Vurds, Island Press:

     That cat's mysin, he doesn't see the dog coming.

   • 2015 December 9, Jack Gauntlett, “Bermudian sayings always raise a smile”, in The Royal Gazette‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-12-11:

     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”.

• “mice”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• ICEM, ICME, cemi, emic

mice f (5th declension)

1. (colloquial) hat
2. (colloquial) cap
3. (colloquial) tucker

• aube

• cepure f
• platmale f