mice

Formsmices, micing, miced

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of mouse.

   Field mice build their nests in the tall grass near the fence.

   The lab technicians cared for hundreds of mice each day.

   Note

   An old irregular plural that changes the vowel instead of adding -s. Old English mȳs came from an umlauted form of Proto-Germanic *mūsiz, the plural of *mūs. Lice from louse and geese from goose follow the same pattern. The one form covers every meaning of mouse, from field rodents to shy people and the device beside a keyboard. It is also spelled exactly like the Bermudian verb for drifting off.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To be distracted or inattentive, with your attention drifting away from what is going on.

   That boy's always micin out in the field, and the ball rolled right past him for four.

   If you mice on that road for even a second, a bike will be on top of you.

   Similardaydream, drift

   Oppositefocus, concentrate

   Note

   A Bermudian verb heard mostly in its -ing form and written the way it is spoken: micin, or mysin in Peter A. Smith and Fred M. Barritt's Bermewjan Vurds (1984). It suits quick remarks about someone who has drifted off, such as a cat too busy to see the dog coming or a friend who is always micin. The picture of a cat distracted by a mouse may lie behind it, though that origin is only a guess.

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