What (who) is Taking the piss - definition

COMMONWEALTH SLANG

Take the mick; Take the Mickey; Pisstake; Piss take; Take the piss; P/t; Taking the Mickey; Taking the micky; Taking the mickey; Takes the piss; Taking the mick; Take the mickey

Taking the piss

Pulling someone's leg, putting them on. British origins. Also, ripping the piss, a superlative.
When Bob told me that the WTC towers were hit by hijacked terrorist airplanes, I thought he was taking the piss.

Taking the piss

Taking the piss is a Commonwealth colloquial term meaning to mock at the expense of others, or to be joking, without the element of offence. (Compare with the American "fuck with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_the_piss

take the piss

Brit.

tease or mock someone or something.

piss

Wikipedia

Taking the piss

Taking the piss is a colloquial term meaning to mock at the expense of others, or to be joking, without the element of offence. It is also sometimes phrased as a question, 'are they taking the piss?', when referring to an individual who takes above and beyond what is thought acceptable, similar to the expression, 'give them an inch and they take a mile. It is a shortening of the idiom taking the piss out of, which is an expression meaning to mock, tease, joke, ridicule, or scoff. It is not to be confused with "taking a piss", which refers to the act of urinating. Taking the Mickey (Mickey Bliss, Cockney rhyming slang), taking the Mick or taking the Michael are additional terms for making fun of someone. These terms are most often used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking the piss

Pronunciation examples for Taking the piss

1. he was just taking the piss out of it.

Never Mind the Bollocks _ Steve Jones _ Talks at Google

2. taking the piss out of these kind of prescriptive methods

Unlabel _ Marc Ecko _ Talks at Google

3. Boy: See man, you’re just taking the piss out of me now.

ted-talks_386_NewtonAduaka_2007G-320k

Examples of use of Taking the piss

1. "It‘s just another manifestation of them taking the piss," said one source close to the commission.

2. He clearly thinks at first that his brief is taking the piss, but gradually he cottons on to the game.

3. One of my co–panellists was Rory Bremner, who spent most of the session gently taking the piss out of our host.

4. And when he suggests we can sing "terrorist suspect" to the tune of "Eleanor Rigby" you wonder whether he is now taking the piss out of himself, or perhaps those who have bothered to read this far.

5. "They‘ve all been taking the piss out of me mercilessly," she joked to reporters at a luncheon thrown in Beverly Hills for this year‘s crop of Oscar nominees, referring to her cast members‘ poking fun at her.