chickened
US · UKCHIK-ind/ˈt͡ʃɪkɪnd/AUSCHIK-uhnd/ˈt͡ʃɪkənd/
- 1Simple past and past participle of chicken.
He chickened out of confronting his boss about the mistake.
By the time the others arrived, two climbers had already chickened out.
Note
One spelling does double duty as past tense and past participle. Because the verb is intransitive, the participle appears after have and never in the passive: two climbers had chickened out. It almost always travels with out, and of introduces what was avoided, as in chickened out of the climb. The fear it names is the same fear behind the slang noun for a coward.
chickened is a form of chicken
chicken, verb: To back out of something because of fear, usually in the phrasal verb chicken out. Full entry
- Forms
- chickenchickens he/she/itchickening -ing formchickened past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- chicken → chickened: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /d/.
Use it in a sentence
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