chicken
♦ chick|en /tʃ'ɪkɪn/ (chickens chickening chickened)
1 [N-COUNT]
Chickens are birds which are kept on a farm for their eggs and for their meat.
Lionel built a coop so that they could raise chickens and have a supply of fresh eggs.
...free-range chickens.
= hen
[N-UNCOUNT]
Chicken is the flesh of this bird eaten as food.
...roast chicken with wild mushrooms.
...chicken soup.
2 [N-COUNT]
If someone calls you a chicken, they mean that you are afraid to do something. (INFORMAL)
I'm scared of the dark. I'm a big chicken.
= coward
[ADJ] v-link ADJ
Chicken is also an adjective.
Why are you so chicken, Gregory?
3 [PHRASE] V inflects
If you say that someone is counting their chickens, you mean that they are assuming that they will be successful or get something, when this is not certain.
I don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched.
4 [PHRASE] PHR n
If you describe a situation as a chicken and egg situation, you mean that it is impossible to decide which of two things caused the other one.
It's a chicken and egg situation. Does the deficiency lead to the eczema or has the eczema led to certain deficiencies?
5
chickens come home to roost: see roostchick|en feed
also chickenfeed
[N-UNCOUNT]
If you think that an amount of money is so small it is hardly worth having or considering, you can say that it is chicken feed.
I was making a million a year, but that's chicken feed in the pop business.
= peanutschicken out
[PHRASAL VERB] V P of n, V P
If someone chickens out of something they were intending to do, they decide not to do it because they are afraid. (INFORMAL)
His mother complains that he makes excuses to chicken out of family occasions such as weddings...
I had never ridden on a motor-cycle before. But it was too late to chicken out.chick|en wire
[N-UNCOUNT]
Chicken wire is a type of thin wire netting.spring chick|en (spring chickens)
[PHRASE] usu v-link PHR
If you say that someone is no spring chicken, you are saying that they are not young. (HUMOROUS)
At 85, he is no spring chicken, but Henry Cook is busier than ever.
1 [N-COUNT]
Chickens are birds which are kept on a farm for their eggs and for their meat.
Lionel built a coop so that they could raise chickens and have a supply of fresh eggs.
...free-range chickens.
= hen
[N-UNCOUNT]
Chicken is the flesh of this bird eaten as food.
...roast chicken with wild mushrooms.
...chicken soup.
2 [N-COUNT]
If someone calls you a chicken, they mean that you are afraid to do something. (INFORMAL)
I'm scared of the dark. I'm a big chicken.
= coward
[ADJ] v-link ADJ
Chicken is also an adjective.
Why are you so chicken, Gregory?
3 [PHRASE] V inflects
If you say that someone is counting their chickens, you mean that they are assuming that they will be successful or get something, when this is not certain.
I don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched.
4 [PHRASE] PHR n
If you describe a situation as a chicken and egg situation, you mean that it is impossible to decide which of two things caused the other one.
It's a chicken and egg situation. Does the deficiency lead to the eczema or has the eczema led to certain deficiencies?
5
chickens come home to roost: see roostchick|en feed
also chickenfeed
[N-UNCOUNT]
If you think that an amount of money is so small it is hardly worth having or considering, you can say that it is chicken feed.
I was making a million a year, but that's chicken feed in the pop business.
= peanutschicken out
[PHRASAL VERB] V P of n, V P
If someone chickens out of something they were intending to do, they decide not to do it because they are afraid. (INFORMAL)
His mother complains that he makes excuses to chicken out of family occasions such as weddings...
I had never ridden on a motor-cycle before. But it was too late to chicken out.chick|en wire
[N-UNCOUNT]
Chicken wire is a type of thin wire netting.spring chick|en (spring chickens)
[PHRASE] usu v-link PHR
If you say that someone is no spring chicken, you are saying that they are not young. (HUMOROUS)
At 85, he is no spring chicken, but Henry Cook is busier than ever.