Definitions

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

  • verb New Zealand, UK, vulgar, slang, idiomatic, transitive To tease, ridicule or mock (someone).
  • verb New Zealand, UK, vulgar, slang, idiomatic, intransitive To subject those present to teasing, ridicule or mockery, or to show contempt.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly from piss-proud. Figuratively, to be piss-proud is to have false pride, thus 'taking the piss out of' is to deflate their false pride, usu. through disparagement or mockery. As the piss-proud metaphor became dated, 'taking the piss out of someone' came to refer to disparagement or mockery itself, regardless of the pride of the subject. Eventually the shortened, intransitive form 'taking the piss' became common.

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Examples

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Comments

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  • We took the piss with a rare tenderness.

    - Peter Reading, Otto Van Bumph, from The Prison Cell and Barrel Mystery, 1976

    June 23, 2008

  • = make fun of

    June 23, 2008