"Mike" Definition

Definitions for the word "Mike" from multiple English dictionaries.

1. n.
Colloq. Microphone. [abbreviation]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
2. slang
an Irish hodman, or general labourer.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864
3. slang
to loiter; or “lazy about.” The term probably originated in St. Giles’s, which is thronged with Irish labourers, who rarely or never labour (MIKE being so common a term with them as to become a generic appellation for Irishmen), and who loiter and lean against the public-houses in the “Dials.” It has been said that the term is Old English, MICHE, to skulk, to loiter; Old Norse, MAK, leisure, idleness. “Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a MICHER?” _Shakspeare’s Hen. IV._, ii. 4. Whatever may have been its origin, there can be now no doubt that the word is supposed to have particular reference to the habits of the Irish MIKES, or labourers, though now and again it is borrowed in the interests of others.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864

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