chickens

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of chicken.

   Several chickens pecked at the scattered grain near the barn door.

   She raises chickens for both their eggs and their meat.

   Note

   A plural that only some meanings of chicken can take. The birds can be counted, so a farmer keeps chickens. The meat cannot, so dinner is chicken, not chickens. The slang senses can be counted too, which lets chickens work as a derogatory word for cowards or for young, inexperienced people. In Polari it refers to young, slim men.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of chicken.

   Whenever the stakes get high, my brother chickens out at the last second.

   He talks tough, but he chickens out the moment anyone challenges him.

   Note

   A verb of lost nerve in its he-she-it form, close kin to the slang noun for a coward. It is intransitive and takes no direct object: someone chickens out, but never chickens a plan. The same spelling is also the plural noun. The grammar tells them apart: "he chickens" is the verb, "the chickens" the birds.

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