Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The common domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus) or its young.
- n. Any of various similar or related birds.
- n. The flesh of the common domestic fowl.
- n. Slang A coward.
- n. Any of various foolhardy competitions in which the participants persist in a dangerous course of action until one loses nerve and stops.
- n. Vulgar Slang A young gay male, especially as sought by an older man.
- adj. Slang Afraid; cowardly.
- v. Slang To act in a cowardly manner; lose one's nerve: chickened out at the last moment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The young of the domestic hen: in this sense now less exact than chick.
- n. A domestic or barn-yàrd fowl, especially one less than a year old.
- n. The young of some birds other than the domestic hen.
- n. A common name of the pinnated grouse or prairie-hen (prairie-chicken), Cupidonia cupido (see cut under Cupidonia), and of the sharp-tailed grouse, Pediæcetes phasianellus.
- n. A person of tender years; a child: sometimes used as a term of endearment, or with a negative (no chicken), in satirical implication of mature years.
- n. A name applied with a qualifying adjective to various fishes, as in the north of Ireland to the Atherina presbyter, called the Portaferry chicken.
- n. A kind of turtle whose shell is used in commerce.
- n. Embroidery, especially embroidery upon muslin.
Wiktionary
- n. A domestic fowl, Gallus gallus, especially when young
- n. The meat from this bird eaten as food.
- n. A coward.
- n. A young, attractive, slim man, usually having little body hair.
- n. A young or inexperienced person.
- n. A confrontational game in which the participants move toward each other at high speed (usually in automobiles); the player who turns first to avoid colliding into the other is the loser.
- n. The game of dare.
- adj. cowardly
- v. To avoid as a result of fear.
- v. To develop physical or other characteristics resembling a chicken's, for example, bumps on the skin.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A young bird or fowl, esp. a young barnyard fowl.
- n. A young person; a child; esp. a young woman; a maiden; same as
spring chicken .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy
- n. a domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl
- adj. easily frightened
- n. a foolhardy competition; a dangerous activity that is continued until one competitor becomes afraid and stops
- n. the flesh of a chicken used for food
Etymologies
- Middle English chiken, from Old English cīcen.
Examples
“Our ownership of more than one inspirational book that began with the phrase "chicken soup," yet contained no recipes.”
“We both ordered a dish that had the word chicken in it.”
“Till they are four months old, the term chicken is applied to the young female; after that age they are called pullets, till they begin to lay, when they are called hens.”
“For example, if the term "chicken" is used, this means chicken flesh or skin, but excluding feathers, heads, feet and entrails.”
“A drawing in the stairwell was made of a chicken dribbling a basketball with the word "dead" and then epithets surrounding the word "chicken.”
“Don't you people know that the best part of a chicken is the bones?”
“They wrap that thing in a fresh pita (all the non-fresh ones having been tossed), and smear it with tahini and a tangy garlic sauce that reeks of the Holy Clove, and the chicken is actual globs of white chicken meat and not that processed stuff, and oh it is heaven.”
“So, this is we're at the real far end of what I called chicken money, ultimate safety when you're in either money market deposit account or a money market mutual fund.”
“And if we are going to have inflation, rates will rise, you'll be glad you stayed short-term, what I call chicken money, so that you can take advantage of rising rates in the years ahead if we have inflation, if it gets out of hand.”
“HAMMER: But I understand there ` s a whole new meaning to this term chicken cutlets, maybe you can enlighten me, if we want to be enlightened.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chicken’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 624 more...
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Chickens
For more "odd-sounding chicken breeds & chicken-related words," see serendoxity's Fowl Words.
Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, Australorp, Cochin, Fayoumi, Hamburg, White Leghorn, Minorca, Wyandotte, Golden Penciled H..., Blue Andalusians, Cuckoo Maran and 132 more...
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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gangster
random gangster lingo.
( randomness )right chea, swagga, chinga, slams, blitzy, earf, manor, code name, rekkid, weight, feather, kong and 298 more...
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You animal!
Names of animals that are also used to describe kinds of people. Nouns only, preferably single word.
For a related list, see sionnach's beastly verbs.rabbit, shark, hog, pussycat, bear, bull, skunk, hawk, wildcat, buck, slug, heifer and 112 more...
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Down on the Farm
All things farm and agriculture related.
barn, tractor, cow, hay, horse, pig, corn, plough, irrigation, subsidies, crops, plant and 260 more...
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Nature and Environment
north, east, west, mountain, sea, beach, river, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, island and 205 more...
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tHe Best Animals Ever
giraffe, elepant, cattle, water buffalo, langur monkey, baboon, lion, antelope, cheetah, tapeworm, kangaroo, bullfrog and 95 more...
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Nicknames you shouldn't give to an axe-wielding...
primrose, snookums, lavender, piglet, rainbow sunshine, kitten, fuzzy, sweetie, wiggles, care bear, love-a-lot, cheery and 84 more...
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Nouns for XKCD936-compliant passphrases
A list of 2048 common English nouns (of 4 letters or more) that could be used to generate plausible, memorable random phrases.
I'm going to use this list in a password generator, inspi...miracle, hotdog, chair, horse, staple, battery, beer, cheese, fire, head, hand, foot and 15 more...
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Animals
pig, camel, ant, ape, donkey, badger, bat, beaver, bee, cat, dog, cow and 82 more...
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Embroidery
"The art of working with the needle raised and ornamental designs in threads of silk, cotton, gold, silver, or other material, upon any woven fabric, leather, paper, etc. Embroidery has been used i...
embroidery, French knot, palestrina stitch, Algerian eye, satin stitch, cross-stitch, tent stitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy stitch, buttonhole stitch, blanket stitch, blanket-stitch and 26 more...
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Meat
sausage, pepperoni, pork chop, ham, tongue, fricandeau, veal, tenderloin, mutton, boeuf, terefah, gammon and 33 more...
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people (bad)
nouns for bad people / words that describe bad people.
goto the good people list
( people, character, descriptor, noun )culprit, perpetrator, tormentor, swindler, bamboozler, nincompoop, thief, liar, back stabber, vandal, burglar, cheater and 85 more...
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animals (2 syllable)
A list of common animal names. Keep the list to 2 syllable words.No scientific names. No proper names like 'Fluffy' the elephant.Insects and other creatures (even ficticious like 'dragon') are we...
baboon, rabbit, raptor, dragon, camel, hornet, llama, cobra, cheetah, penguin, puppy, dolphin and 85 more...
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Meats: For All the Carnivores out There
Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
Just kidding. Kind of.yak, wood pigeon, wild turkey, wild boar, venison, veal, turtle, turkey, squirrel, squab, snail, rattlesnake and 51 more...

PossibleUnderscore Hah! Feb 6, 2010
yarb Diogenes the Git, he should've been called. Feb 6, 2010
ruzuzu To criticize Plato's definition of man as zōon dipoun apteron (two-legged animal without feathers (or the latinized animal bipes implume)), Diogenes the Cynic brought a plucked chicken to the Academy. In response, Plato added "having broad nails" to his definition. See Wikipedia's list of Greek phrases. Feb 6, 2010
Telofy chicken Dec 27, 2008
kewpid George Carlin said they're decent people. Dec 27, 2008
oroboros There are more chickens than people in the world! Oct 5, 2007
oroboros Daffynition: an animal that people eat only before it's born or after it's dead. Jan 6, 2007