| 释义 |
Mickey Mouse|ˈmɪkɪ maʊs|
1. The name of a mouse-like character in a series of animated cartoons designed by the American cartoonist Walter Elias (‘Walt’) Disney (1901–66), used with direct or indirect reference to the character in these cartoons. Also ellipt. Mickey, a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Also attrib. or as adj., characteristic of, resembling, or featuring Mickey Mouse. Frequently (esp. in U.S.) designating something small, insignificant, or worthless.
1934R. Stout Fer-de-Lance v. 66 Everybody..would be..laughing at us instead of going to a movie to see Micky Mouse. 1935S. Lewis It can't happen Here ix. 84 Dr. Goebbels..is privily known throughout Germany as ‘Wotan's Mickey Mouse’. 1936N. Coward To-night at 8.30 II. 49 We'll miss the Mickey. 1936‘G. Orwell’ Let. 26 Aug. in Coll. Ess. (1968) i. 228 You have moved too much away from the ordinary world into a sort of Mickey Mouse universe where things and people don't have to obey the rules of space and time. 1937Cinema Arts July 24 The light which the electrician is aiming at Mr. Gable's head is the smallest ‘spot’ used in the studio, and is therefore known as a Mickey Mouse. 1939War Illustr. 18 Nov. 310/3 Special ‘Mickey Mouse’ gas-masks in various colours and having separate eye-pieces and a little nose are being made for small children who are repelled by the ordinary ones. 1941San Francisco Examiner 2 Mar. Pict. Rev. 7/1 George Graham, a timid, middle-aged mickey mouse who was afraid of crowds, people, anything. 1942N. Streatfeild I ordered Table for Six 20 That little bit of the room at the top must have been a nursery once, there's some Mickie Mouses on that wallpaper. 1951San Francisco Examiner 3 Feb. 1/3 (heading) 40th Division. Troops Lack Equipment. Woes of ‘Mickey Mouse Army’. 1957T. Gunn Sense of Movement 54 Bent keys, Italian grammars, Mickey Mouse caps. 1958Amer. Speech XXXIII. 226 A ‘Mickey Mouse course’ means a snap course. 1962New Statesman 19 Jan. 96/2 A Mickey Mouse clock ticks beside the marital bed. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 176 [Kansas University slang] An assignment which is regarded as foolish and a waste of time is a Mickey Mouse. 1966Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 4 June (1970) 387 It [sc. the graduation ceremony] is such a mass production affair—‘Mickey Mouse’, as she calls it—not quite the sophisticated thing to do anymore. 1968Sunday Times 20 Oct. 8/4 Cunningham referred to ‘Micky Mouse’ (unnecessary and childish) operations. 1969C. Davidson in Cockburn & Blackburn Student Power 329 The forms given us for our self-government are of the Mickey Mouse, sand-box variety. 1972J. Mosedale Football ii. 25 One reason for the AFL's reputation as a Mickey Mouse league is that it gave new life to NFL rejects. 1973R. Ludlum Matlock Paper xix. 161 The average purchase of chips was $200 to $300. Hardly ‘Micky Mouse’. 1974Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Nov. 1/2 The titles kept the press and broadcast media from thinking ‘it was such a Mickey Mouse operation’. 1975Amer. Speech 1972 XLVII. 152 You getting flew coy with the gray boys, Mickey Mouse? Ibid. 153 Mickey mouse n, white; black who ‘puts on a white face’.
2. Mus. Inferior dance-band music, similar to that played as a background to a cartoon film; usu. attrib.
1938Down Beat Apr. 25/2 A strictly ‘mickey mouse’ band is still box office. 1945Ibid. 1 Sept. 15/1 Strictly mickey mouse is what they [sc. night clubs] advocate, and many of the truly good musicians are forced to play the tripe in order to get work. 1954San Francisco Chron. 17 June 17 (heading) Glenn Miller's music was all Mickey Mouse. 1958Amer. Speech XXXIII. 225 A mickey or Mickey Mouse band is not merely a ‘pop tune’ band,..but the kind of pop band that sounds as if it is playing background for an animated cartoon. 1966Crescendo May 4/2 The jazzman's struggle for self-expression in a world of commercial Mickey Mouse bands. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 81 Micky Mouse (music), popular, commercialized music.
3. Air Force slang. A name applied to an electrical device which releases bombs from aircraft.
1941N.Y. Times 6 Apr. 30/5 This war is producing a new batch of army slang... Many of the words are peculiar to certain units, and very few are yet in general use... An R.A.F. pilot calls his cockpit the ‘pulpit’... The instrument releasing the bombs, an electrical distributor, is called a ‘Mickey Mouse’. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 46 Mickey Mouse. The bomb-dropping mechanism on some types of bomber aircraft is so called because it strongly resembles the intricate machinery portrayed in Walt Disney's cartoons. 1943L. Cheshire Bomber Pilot i. 8 If I knew how to use ‘Mickey Mouse’, to open and shut bomb doors, or use a bomb-sight.
Hence Mickey-mousing (see quots.).
1957Manvell & Huntley Technique Film Music ii. 38 ‘Mickey-Mousing’ in film musical terminology..means the exact, calculated dove-tailing of music and action. 1960Times 1 Dec. 7/3 Odds and ends of Albeniz..treated to what film composers would call ‘mickey-mousing’, with every detail of the music mirrored with stupefying literalness in the dancing. 1973New Society 2 Aug. 288/1 What is known in the film-music trade as ‘Mickey-Mousing’—the action of the film gets a simultaneous musical parody. When Tarzan swings down on his rope, a harp plays a descending glissando. |