chicken

Less common meanings

4. 4
   cowardlyadjectivecolloquial

   Showing a lack of courage; afraid to take a risk.

   They were too chicken to confront the boss about the missing pay.

   Nobody wanted to look chicken, so all five of us jumped off the bridge into the lake.

   UsageUsually after a verb rather than before a noun: too chicken to jump, look chicken.

   Similarcowardly, gutless, timid, fearful, spineless

   Oppositebrave, courageous, bold, fearless

5. 5
   back outverbintransitive

   To back out of something because of fear, usually in the phrasal verb chicken out.

   We could all tell he was about to chicken out when he suddenly started complaining about his sore ankle.

   We had agreed to tell the manager about the problem together, but my coworker chickened out and left me to do it alone.

   UsageMost often chicken out, and chicken out of something: chicken out of the jump.

   Similarflinch, falter

   Note

   Most often met as the phrasal verb chicken out. The bare verb is a clipping of it, with the particle dropped. It is intransitive and regular: chickens, chickening, chickened. 1960s writing shows it at home in speech, in Max Shulman's "For the umpteenth time, I chickened" (1964) and in Aidan Chambers's play The Chicken Run (1968): "All right, so I chickened." Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The bare verb chicken is a shortening of chicken out. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation occurs in Max Shulman's Anyone Got a Match?. en.wiktionary.org
   • Aidan Chambers wrote the play The Chicken Run, first published in 1968. aidanchambers.co.uk
   • The Chicken Run contains the exact quotation “All right, so I chickened.” en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   head-on racenouncountable or uncountable

   A game of dare in which people face a risk, often driving toward each other, and the first to back out loses.

   On empty country roads, some reckless teenagers still play chicken, driving straight at each other until someone swerves.

   A game of chicken between two speedboats ended with both crews in the water.

   UsageUse play chicken or a game of chicken, without an article before chicken. You can play chicken with another driver.

   Note

   The loser names the game: whoever swerves first is the chicken, the coward of the "coward" noun. The phrase stretches easily to any reckless standoff (don't play chicken with a freight train), and David Walliams's Bad Dad stages it with cars hurtling toward each other across a pitch. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The game's name refers to the participant who swerves first being called a chicken, meaning a coward. en.wikipedia.org
   • David Walliams's Bad Dad depicts a game of chicken involving cars approaching each other across a pitch. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   dancenouncountable or uncountable

   A simple dance in which the dancers imitate the movements of a chicken.

   The kids broke into the chicken the moment the band struck up.

   When the band played the old song, everyone at the wedding flapped their arms and did the chicken.

   UsageUsually do the chicken, with the, like other dance names.

8. 8
   nounslangcountable

   A young person, used mostly in the phrase no spring chicken, meaning someone who is no longer young.

   The coach admitted he was no spring chicken, yet he still ran laps alongside his players every afternoon.

   Our neighbor is no spring chicken, but after forty years as a nurse she can handle almost any emergency.

   UsageMostly in the negative: no spring chicken or no chicken, said of someone who is no longer young.

   Similarbeginner

   Oppositeveteran

   Note

   Here the bird stands for youth rather than fear. Jonathan Swift's birthday verses for Stella scold the gossips who hint "that Stella is no chicken," and a speaker in Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet insists "I am no chicken." Read the context, because not a chicken can just as easily mean no coward, as in the "coward" noun. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Chicken has a sense referring to youth or inexperience rather than cowardice. en.wiktionary.org
   • Jonathan Swift's birthday verses for Stella rebuke gossip about her age and contain the quoted words. gutenberg.org
   • A Study in Scarlet is by Arthur Conan Doyle, and a character says the quoted words; the speaker is Lestrade. gutenberg.org
   • Not a chicken can mean no coward. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   baby birdnounarchaiccountable or uncountable

   The newly hatched or very young offspring of any bird; a chick.

   There they are – four ugly little chickens, a bit more than half-feathered, and all gaping mouths and bare bellies.

   1934, Henry G. Lamond, An Aviary on the Plains

   Note

   Older English let the word cover the young of any bird, not just the farmyard kind. Henry G. Lamond still writes in 1934, in An Aviary on the Plains, of "four ugly little chickens," half-feathered and all gaping mouths. Today chick does that job. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Historically, chicken could mean the young of any bird. en.wiktionary.org
   • Henry G. Lamond wrote An Aviary on the Plains. libserver.jcu.edu.au
10. 10
    young mannounslangcountable

    A young, attractive, slim man, usually with little body hair.

    Europe's Favorite Gay Newspaper has something for you! Handsome studs, Tender Chicken, and lots of Male Nudes!

    1976, “Classified advertisement”, in Gay Community News

    I am a little white chicken, beautiful as sweet and young as beautiful and soft as young and gay as soft and innocent as gay. I dare you to write.

    1991, Ronald Smith, “Personal advertisement”

    Note

    A word from gay men's slang, in which the bird's youth became a type: young, slim and smooth. It surfaces in the classified and personal advertisements of Gay Community News, from "Tender Chicken" in 1976 to "a little white chicken" in 1991. The compound chickenhawk is built on it, so the two words are best understood together. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Chicken belongs to gay men's slang. en.wikipedia.org
    • A 1976 classified advertisement in Gay Community News contains the exact words “Tender Chicken”. en.wiktionary.org
    • A 1991 personal advertisement in Gay Community News contains the exact words “a little white chicken”. en.wiktionary.org
    • The gay slang compound chickenhawk incorporates chicken in this sense. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    A small pot made of pewter, of a kind used in taverns.

    Note

    A tavern word that has dropped out of use entirely. In older writing, a chicken set down on a table may be a small pewter pot rather than a bird, and talk of drink nearby is usually what tells you which. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Chicken historically denoted a small pewter pot associated with publicans. dl.tufts.edu
12. 12
    nounslangUS

    A one-kilogram quantity of cocaine.