人們在日常用語中用“mickey mouse”來指膽小怕事和愚蠢的人， 例如: “There are many Mickey Mice in office across the country，from both parties and at all levels of government.” (Business Week July 27，1974）在澳大利亞，mickey mouse用來指便宜或者不可信的產(chǎn)品。在美式和英式英語中，mickey mouse通常是形容詞，用來形容乏味的或者瑣碎的活動(dòng)，例如: “The big reason that they don’t have enough men (police officers) on the highways is because they're doing too much other Mickey Mouse” (Kansas City Star January 8 1974). 此外，學(xué)生們用這個(gè)詞來形容那些完成起來易如反掌的課程或者作業(yè): “The athletes…are encouraged to take specially-tailored mickey-mouse courses so as not to jeopardize their athletic standing.” (Rapoport and Kirshbaum, Is the Library Burning? 1969)
“mickey mouse”還被用于軍事領(lǐng)域，例如越戰(zhàn)時(shí)期的“Mickey Mouse ears”radio--一種二戰(zhàn)中的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)上炸彈投放設(shè)備；二戰(zhàn)時(shí)期還有一部介紹性病的教學(xué)影片名位Mickey Mouse，例如: “a two minute Mickey Mouse would be added, a trailer of clinical shots showing diseased organs in full color” (W. Stevens Gunner 89 1966, ref. to WWII).
而我們目前經(jīng)常使用的意思是“（企業(yè)、公司）規(guī)模小的，過于簡陋的”(small and unimportant)，常含貶義，例如: “He calls himself the managing director but his company is just a Mickey Mouse operation that he runs from his own house.” (他自稱為總經(jīng)理，但他的公司就是再他自己家里經(jīng)營的一個(gè)微不足道的商號(hào)。)
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