# chicken

Pronunciation: US/UK say "CHIK-in" /ˈt͡ʃɪkɪn/; AUS say "CHIK-uhn" /ˈt͡ʃɪkən/

## Noun

1. The meat of the domestic fowl, prepared and eaten as food.
   - Simple: Meat from the farm bird, eaten as food.
   - _The recipe calls for shredded chicken and a handful of herbs._
   - _Grilled chicken is a staple at the corner deli._
2. A domesticated form of the red junglefowl, kept around the world for its eggs and meat.
   - Simple: A common farm bird kept for its eggs and meat.
   - _The chicken scratched at the dirt looking for seeds and insects._
   - _Free-range chickens wander the orchard during the day._
3. A person who lacks courage; a coward. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A person who is too scared to do brave things.
   - _When Marcus refused to jump off the high diving board, his friends teased him for being a chicken all afternoon._
   - _She refused to be the chicken who quit before the finish._
6. A game of dare in which people face a risk, often driving toward each other, and the first to back out loses.
   - Simple: A dangerous game where people dare each other, and the first one to get scared and stop 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._
7. A simple dance in which the dancers imitate the movements of a chicken.
   - Simple: A simple dance where people copy 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._
8. A young person, used mostly in the phrase no spring chicken, meaning someone who is no longer young. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A young person, mostly in the phrase no spring chicken, which means someone 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._
10. A young, attractive, slim man, usually with little body hair. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A young, good-looking, slim man with little body hair.

## Adjective

4. Showing a lack of courage; afraid to take a risk. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Too scared to do something, and not at all brave.
   - _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._

## Verb

5. To back out of something because of fear, usually in the phrasal verb chicken out.
   - Simple: To not do something because you are too scared, usually said as '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._

## Noun

9. The newly hatched or very young offspring of any bird; a chick. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A baby bird of any kind.
11. A small pot made of pewter, of a kind used in taverns. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A small metal pot once used in a tavern or bar.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A one-kilogram quantity of cocaine.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 6–11** — From Middle English chiken (also chike, which gave English chick), from Old English ċicen or ċycen ("chicken"), of uncertain origin. It may come from Proto-West Germanic *kiukīn, or from *kukkīn (equivalent to cock plus -en), with cognates such as Dutch kuiken and Old Norse kjúklingr.
**Meaning 5** — A shortening of the phrase chicken out.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/chicken (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).