Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An alcoholic beverage that is surreptitiously altered to induce diarrhea or stupefy, render unconscious, or otherwise incapacitate the person who drinks it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang an alcoholic drink doctored with a drug intended to quickly render the drinker unconscious.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun slang term for knockout drops

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably after a notorious Chicago bar shut down in 1903, allegedly because its customers were served spiked drinks and then robbed.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably named for the manager and bartender of a Chicago establishment, the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden Restaurant, which operated from 1896 to 1903, who was accused of using "knockout drops" to incapacitate and rob some of his customers.

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Examples

  • Mays had venereal disease, epilepsy, a heart attack, depression, a mental breakdown, or he drank a Mickey Finn.

    WILLIE MAYS JAMES S. HIRSCH 2010

  • Louis mistakenly drinks the Mickey Finn intended for Alec, falls asleep, and dreams he is King Louis XV of France, and that May is Madame du Barry, and that Alec is a dashing rebel called the Black Arrow.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Elizabeth Kerri Mahon 2009

  • If a Mickey Finn should suddenly appear before thee, do not think he is healthy for thee!

    Fire Chief "Resigns" And Becomes Cartoon Du Jour 2006

  • Tis a "Lower The Boom" drink is the Mickey Finn, not a pirate... mayhap thou didst gulp it down the evening last before thou didst crawled to thine bunk?

    Fire Chief "Resigns" And Becomes Cartoon Du Jour 2006

  • But can we watch out for the same specious Mickey Finn being sprinkled into the drink?

    Two Points About Gitmo « Whatever 2006

  • If Hannah was right and there were trout there, they would see a Mickey Finn and a red-and-white bucktail before they saw Potter and Will.

    Stillwater William F. Weld 2002

  • If Hannah was right and there were trout there, they would see a Mickey Finn and a red-and-white bucktail before they saw Potter and Will.

    Stillwater William F. Weld 2002

  • If Hannah was right and there were trout there, they would see a Mickey Finn and a red-and-white bucktail before they saw Potter and Will.

    Stillwater William F. Weld 2002

  • McCoy had doubtless not only slipped him a Mickey Finn, but had arranged for his replacement on the bridge as well.

    Ishmael Barbara Hambly 2000

  • McCoy had doubtless not only slipped him a Mickey Finn, but had arranged for his replacement on the bridge as well.

    Ishmael Barbara Hambly 2000

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