mike
part of speech
noun (Mike — a name; a mike, mikes — informal); verb (mike up — informal)
meaning for a pupil
1) Mike is a boy's or man's first name, short for Michael. tree →
2) (informal) A mike is a microphone, the device that picks up your voice so it can be made louder or recorded. tree →
3) (informal) To mike someone up is to fix a small microphone on them. tree →
4) In the radio alphabet, Mike stands for the letter M. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school, a mike is used in assemblies, plays and school radio; you speak clearly into the mike. Pilots and police say "Mike" for M when spelling over the radio. Phrases: "speak into the mike", "the mike is on", "open mike night", "mike drop".
examples
- Mike is my best friend from football. tree →
- Please speak into the mike so the people at the back can hear. tree →
- The mike squeaked loudly when the head teacher tapped it. tree →
- The sound team miked up all the actors before the play. tree →
- My uncle played guitar at an open-mike night. tree →
- "M for Mike," said the pilot over the radio. tree →
- (slang) She finished her speech, dropped the mike and walked off. tree →
note
As a name it takes a capital letter. "Mike" for microphone is also spelled "mic" (pronounced the same). "Mike drop" is slang for ending something boldly after a great point. "For the love of Mike!" is an old exclamation of annoyance.
In the corpora
- At Christmas dinner Uncle Mike says "Bulls hate red!" for the tenth year running, and half the family groans.
- In "Mike's mum has three children: April, May and...", the third child is Mike.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «mike» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.