meemies, n. pl. slang.
(ˈmiːmɪz)
[Origin obscure.]
In full, screaming meemies.
1. Hysterics; a hysterical person. (See also quot. 1927.)
| 1927 New Republic 9 Mar. 72 The following is a partial list of words denoting drunkenness now in common use in the United States... To have the screaming meemies [etc.]. 1942 Ibid. 19 Jan. 78 If the mother gets the screaming meemies every time the siren growls, this deep and damaging fear is reflected and associated with all sirens, and all talk of bombs. 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) xvii. 323 The jangled nerves, the reefer flights, the underworld meemies. 1970 N.Z. Listener 12 Oct. 13/3 Thunderclap. Gets the screaming meemies. I couldn't help hearing her shouting, in the next room. 1973 Gagnon & Simon Sexual Conduct (1974) v. 151 We've got a nice circle of friends that aren't a bunch of screaming meemies. |
2. Also sing. meemie, mimi. (See quots.)
| 1944 Infantry Jrnl. Sept. 23 In Sicily it was the Nebel⁓werfer mortar, nicknamed the ‘woof-woof’ or ‘screaming mimi’. 1945 N.Y. Herald Tribune 4 Feb. 3 The nebel⁓werfer is a six-barreled projector firing six-inch rockets... The rockets, not very accurate, are variously called ‘screaming meemies’ and ‘moaning Minnies’, but, like most Army slang terms, these names are also applied to other enemy explosives. 1945 Sat. Rev. Lit. 3 Nov. 7 The Screaming Meemie is a German multi-barreled rocket-mortar (so named for the sound it makes going off). |