on the Pat and Mick

• on the pat and mick

Rhyming slang for on the sick. Pat and Mick are stereotypical Irish names.

on the Pat and Mick

1. (Cockney rhyming slang) Sick; out of commission due to being unwell.
   • 1981 October 2, Jack McLean, “Limping along the road to recovery”, in Glasgow Herald, Scotland, retrieved 10 August 2015:

     Things are very different when you are off on the sick. . . . For a start, when you are on the Pat and Mick you no longer go to work.

   • 2008 July 22, Daisy Dart, “Re: Fatal bus accident in Leeds”, in Bus and Coach Forum, UK, retrieved 10 August 2015:

     I'm on the pat and mick at the mo. Only went to town to see my mother off on the train, as she'd come down for the weekend to cheer me up.

   • 2013 Dec. 8, Bren, "Dropped car battery," autoshite.com Motoring chat forum (UK) (retrieved 10 Aug 2015):

     While lifting the SD1's battery the handle came off. . . . [I]t then bounced and landed on my foot—good job I was wearing my toetectors otherwise I would have spent Christmas on the pat and mick.

• laid up; see also Thesaurus:diseased