city mouse

noun

A city person; someone who has city ways.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nouncity mouse (plural city mice)

plural city mice

  1. figurativelyA city person; someone who has city ways.
  2. figurativelyslangAntarcticaA member of support personnel who remains at the base.

    "[…] Maybe we'll run into some country mice." "Country mice?" "Some of the Mac-Town folks, out here on the ice. City mice stay at McMurdo, and country mice—"

    2023, J. Scott Coatsworth, Love & Limitations
    1 more example

    […] before arriving, he'd never thought it would be spent as one of the city mice. Most of the McMurdoans never ranged more than walking distance from the largest town on the entire continent.

    2021, M. L. Buchman, In for the Long Haul: An Antarctic Ice Fliers Romance Story

Origin

An allusion to The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, one of Aesop's Fables.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

city mouse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/city%20mouse

MLA

“city mouse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/city%20mouse. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “city mouse,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/city%20mouse.

Source: city mouse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.