Definition

1. Noun:

   • A domestic fowl bred for its meat or eggs: A common farm bird, often referring to the species Gallus gallus domesticus.
   • The meat from this bird used as food: The flesh of a chicken, prepared and eaten.
   • A person who is cowardly or lacks courage: (Informal) Someone who is easily frightened or avoids danger or confrontation.
   • A dangerous game or challenge of nerve: (Slang) A contest, often involving risk, where participants test each other's courage until one withdraws.

2. Adjective:

   • Cowardly; easily frightened: (Informal) Describing someone who is not brave.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Animal):
  • The farmer keeps chickens for their eggs.
  • We saw a rooster and several chickens in the yard.
• Noun (Food):
  • For dinner, we had roast chicken with vegetables.
  • She prefers chicken to beef.
• Noun (Person):
  • He called me a chicken for not wanting to go on the roller coaster.
  • Don't be such a chicken; it's not that scary.
• Adjective:
  • That was a chicken thing to do, running away from the problem.
  • I felt too chicken to ask her out.

Advanced Usage

• "Don't count your chickens before they hatch": An idiom meaning you should not make plans based on future events that may not happen.
  • You might win the lottery, but don't count your chickens before they hatch.
• "Chicken feed": A very small or insignificant amount of money.
  • The payment they offered was chicken feed compared to the work required.

Variants and Related Words

• Chicken-hearted (adj): Cowardly; timid.
  • The chicken-hearted soldier refused to go into battle.
• Chicken out (phrasal verb): To decide not to do something because of fear.
  • He was going to bungee jump but chickened out at the last moment.

Synonyms

• Fowl: A bird, especially a domestic cock or hen.
• Coward: A person who lacks courage.
• Timid: Showing a lack of courage or confidence.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Chicken out: To withdraw from a challenge or commitment due to fear.
  • She promised to sing karaoke but chickened out when her turn came.

Related Idioms

• Running around like a headless chicken: Acting in a frantic, disorganized way without thinking.
  • After the fire alarm went off, everyone was running around like a headless chicken.
• Spring chicken: A young person (often used in the negative to say someone is no longer young).
  • He's a good player, but he's no spring chicken anymore.

Adjective

1. easily frightened

Noun

1. a foolhardy competition; a dangerous activity that is continued until one competitor becomes afraid and stops
2. a person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy
3. a domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl
4. the flesh of a chicken used for food