mickey mouse
adjective
trite and commercially slick in character; corny.
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mickey mouse
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Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouseadjectiveineffective; trivial; insignificant
mickey mouse
Americanadjective
(often initial capital letters)
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trite and commercially slick in character; corny.
mickey mouse music.
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useless, insignificant, or worthless.
mickey mouse activities just to fill up one's time.
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trivial or petty.
mickey mouse regulations.
Mickey Mouse
British
adjective
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ineffective; trivial; insignificant
he settled for a Mickey Mouse job instead of something challenging
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(of music, esp that of dance bands) mechanical or spiritless
Mickey Mouse
Cultural
Etymology
Origin of mickey mouse
First recorded in 1930–35; after the animated cartoon character created by Walt Disney, originally with reference to the banal dance-band music played as background to the cartoons
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He was reportedly wearing jeans and a mickey mouse shirt when he escaped.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 14, 2016
I need you to perform at her party with specifically a minnie mouse dead-mow-five head… not a mickey mouse dead-mow-five head.
From Time ● Mar. 2, 2016
"There's no economy in the world can grow and provide public services with air, you know, it's mickey mouse economics."
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2015
I think what is happening from a public point of view looks a bit mickey mouse and that is not good for the reputation of the university.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2011
In North America this might be called a mickey mouse program.
From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Guy L. Steele
Whether walking in freezing rain without an umbrella or wearing Mickey Mouse ears around campus, Zamorano always knows what he’s doing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
He stars in Marvel’s top selling comic book, appears in theme parks and on cruise ships, and is parent company Disney’s second most lucrative consumer-products brand, behind only Mickey Mouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
“We were in our teens coming down to New York on the train or on the bus to audition for things, like ‘The Mickey Mouse Club,’” he told the outlet.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Recalling the surprise on Christmas Day, Emma said Sienna, her sister Amelia, 12, and their six cousins found out about the trip through a letter from Mickey Mouse.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
Picture it: the entire student body decked out in Day-Glo and beads—all except for one brain-dead pair wearing Mickey Mouse masks.
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
