drop the mic

1. To dramatically drop one's microphone (or, often, to mimic such a motion) after a particularly decisive or impressive performance, action, or statement. Did you see him drop the mic after that rap battle? Right in the middle of the meeting, she exposed her boss's crooked dealings, announced that she was quitting, dropped the mic, and walked out of the board room. After a rousing speech at the pep rally, the captain of the football dropped the mic and motioned for everyone to get up and chant along with him.

2. By extension, to perform a decisive or impressive action. Dude just dropped the mic with that dunk! Wow, she basically dropped the mic when she revealed exactly why each other candidate is unfit to be mayor. Even though the Owls had finished with the best record in the league by far, their upstart playoff opponents dropped the mic on them with a four-game sweep.

hot mic

informal A microphone that is still recording or transmitting audio without the knowledge of someone within its range. The politician launched into a poisonous invective against immigrants and minorities after the cameras turned off, not aware of the hot mic broadcasting his every word to the whole world. Did you hear about the morning show host who was caught on a hot mic calling his co-host "dumb as a box of rocks"? A: "What's the latest controversy?" B: "Well, a hot mic backstage picked up someone making some pretty misogynistic comments."

mic

informal A shortening of "microphone." Make sure your mic is on before we start recording. Did you see him mic drop after that rap battle?

mic drop

"Mic" is an informal shortening of "microphone."

1. verb To dramatically drop one's microphone (or, especially, to mimic the motion of such) after a particularly decisive or impressive performance, action, or statement. Did you see him mic drop after that rap battle? Right in the middle of the meeting, she exposed her boss's crooked dealings, announced that she was quitting, mic dropped, and walked out of the board room.

2. noun A decisive or impressive statement or action. You were so confident during your presentation that the last slide was like, boom, mic drop! I think the partners were very impressed. That dunk was the mic drop that ended the series.

mic up

informal To fit a portable microphone to a person or thing. A noun or pronoun can be used between "mic" and "up." I still need to mic up the guests before we begin the interview. I don't like it when musicals mic the actors up. It's just really distracting to see. It turns out the police had mic'd up the company's office to record evidence of their illegal dealings.