chickenn.

Brit.

/ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)n/, U.S.

/ˈtʃɪkən/

Forms: Old English ciacen (rare), Old English ciccen (Northumbrian), Old English ciken (Mercian), Old English cycen (rare), Old English–early Middle English cicen, early Middle English chicn- (inflected form), Middle English checn- (inflected form), Middle English checon, Middle English checonn, Middle English chekn- (inflected form), Middle English chekon, Middle English chekyne, Middle English chekynge, Middle English chekynn- (inflected form), Middle English chicon, Middle English chicoun, Middle English chikken, Middle English chikkon, Middle English chikn- (inflected form), Middle English chikoun, Middle English chycon, Middle English chykn- (inflected form), Middle English chykne, Middle English chykonn- (inflected form), Middle English schycon, Middle English schykyn, Middle English–1500s cheken, Middle English–1500s chekin, Middle English–1500s chekyn, Middle English–1500s chikon, Middle English–1500s chikyn, Middle English–1500s chyken, Middle English–1500s chykin, Middle English–1500s chykon, Middle English–1500s chykyn, Middle English–1700s chiken, Middle English– chicken, 1500s checkyng, 1500s cheekyne, 1500s chekyng, 1500s cheykyn, 1500s chickinn- (inflected form), 1500s chikinn- (inflected form), 1500s chyking, 1500s–1600s chikin, 1500s–1700s (1800s– regional and nonstandard) chickin, 1600s chekkene, 1600s chickeen, 1500s–1600s (1800s regional) chicking; Scottish pre-1700 checkynn- (inflected form), pre-1700 cheekin, pre-1700 cheekkin, pre-1700 cheikenn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chekin, pre-1700 cheking, pre-1700 chekinn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chekkein, pre-1700 chekn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chekyn, pre-1700 chekynn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chiken, pre-1700 chikin, pre-1700 chikinn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chikkin, pre-1700 chikkyn, pre-1700 chikn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chikyn, pre-1700 chykinn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chykkynn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chykn- (inflected form), pre-1700 1700s– chicken, 1800s– chucken, 1800s– shicken (Shetland, in chickenwort n.). N.E.D. (1889) also records forms early Middle English chikene, late Middle English chykynge, late Middle English schecon, late Middle English schekyn.

Etymology: Cognate with East Frisian (Wangeroog) sjuuken , Middle Dutch kiken , kiekin , kieken , kūken , kuyken (Dutch kuiken , (regional: northern) kieken ), Middle Low German kǖken , all in the sense ‘chick, younɡ bird, chicken’, of uncertain origin, probably ultimately imitative. Compare in similar senses German Küken (18th cent., a borrowing from Low German), and with different suffixes German Küchlein , Old Icelandic kjúklingr , Swedish kjukling , Danish kylling . Compare chick n.¹Ulterior etymology. The relationship between the various Germanic words is unclear. The ending probably shows a diminutive-forming suffix (see -en suffix¹). It has sometimes been suggested that the stem shows an ablaut variant (e -grade) of a putative Germanic base of cock n.¹; however, it is probably more likely that it is imitative of the bird's chirp (and hence connected with cock n.¹ and int. only to the extent that both words are probably of imitative origin). Development in Old English. In Old English a strong neuter (cīcen , plural cīcenu , (also) cīcen ). The phonological details of the word are not entirely clear, but it appears to reflect early West Saxon *cīecen , showing i-mutation of Germanic iu . Late Mercian cīken (with smoothing of the inherited diphthong) suggests that already in Old English the medial velar was not palatalized and assibilated (as would be expected before original ī of the diminutive suffix). The reason for this has not been adequately explained; it is perhaps the result of dissimilation from the regularly palatalized and assibilated initial consonant. Development of the plural. Uninflected plurals are occasionally attested in early Middle English (compare Old English nominative and accusative plural forms cīcen , cīcenu ). Compare also the following later examples of chicken as a plural, although it can be difficult to determine in individual cases whether they are intended as a plural of chicken or chick (see discussion in etymology at chick n.¹):c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 579/39 Educamen, a teme of checonn.1563 L. Humphrey Nobles or of Nobilitye i. sig. e.iii Cities in times paste (as we nowe) wonted to stampe in their coyne certaine Images. They of Delos or Athenes, an oxe. Moreouer the Athenians maydes, or night owles. The Corinthians chicken, The Peleponnesians snayles.1684 T. Creech tr. Theocritus Idylliums xiv. 75 I made them welcome, got the best I cou'd, A sucking Pig, two Chicken, Country food.1788 J. Trusler Habitable World Described III. 227 A great number of chicken, and other poultry, are killed by convulsive disorders.1933 Nottingham Evening Post 29 Dec. 1/6 A flock of chicken, scared by the express, flew wildly from the track.The sporadic late survival of chicken as a plural may partly reflect analogy with the plurals of other animal names (as e.g. sheep n. with unchanged plural or ox n. with -en plural: oxen ); its continued use in set phrases and proverbs is probably also partly motivated by rhyme (compare e.g. children and chicken should always be picking at Phrases 1a).

I. A domestic fowl, and related senses.

a. A domesticated gallinaceous bird ( Gallus gallus domesticus) used as a source of eggs and meat, typically having a fairly large, stout body, a comb and wattles on the head, and large feet for foraging on the ground. In early use spec.: a young individual of this bird; = chick n.¹ 4 (now rare).Chickens were domesticated chiefly from the red junglefowl, G. gallus, at least five thousand years ago, probably originally in South Asia. They are now kept throughout the world in numerous breeds which vary in plumage, size, and shape.For occasional uses with unchanged plural see etymological note.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl)

chickenOE

chicka1398

fowla1586

biddya1616

chuck1615

pull-fowla1688

chucky1724

dunghill1753

dunghill fowl1796

jungle-fowl1824

chook1888

gump1914

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) > young or chicken

chickenOE

chicka1398

poulta1425

chicken birdc1450

peepera1586

peepling1594

game chicken1674

peep1688

spring chicken1765

clucker1779

chickabiddy1785

chicklet1836

chickie1851

wing-chick1885

pee-pee1890

OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xxiii. 37 Swa seo henn hyre cicenu [OE Lindisf. Gospels cicceno, OE Rushw. Gospels ciken; L. pullos] under hyre fyþeru gegaderað.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Tobit viii. 11 Aboute chykenys crowing [L. circa pullorum cantum].

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection i. sig. Dv^v He..cherissheth vs, as the egle her byrdes: the broode henne her cheykyns.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 249 To guard the Chicken from a hungry Kyte.

1741 Philos. Trans. 1737–8 (Royal Soc.) 40 445 Two Members of the Academy have been employed to make the Experiments relating to the Cure of the Bite of Vipers, and they have accordingly made some upon Dogs, Cats, Pigeons, Chickens, Ducks and Turkeys.

1848 Sketches Rural Affairs 236 A hen and her chickens are sometimes carried..to the turnip-field, in a sort of basket, called a brood-basket.

1887 Scribner's Mag. May 622/1 The farm people had all retired with the chickens long before.

1908 Westm. Gaz. 24 Jan. 3/1 It is a disastrous betrayal of middle-class origin to speak of a ‘chicken’ as a ‘fowl’. Whatever the age of the bird, the word must always be chicken.

1976 Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) 6 July 11 South Africa has produced its very own, indigenous kind of fowl..called..the Potchefstroom koekoek... It produces chickens which can be readily identified as boys or girls immediately they hatch out.

2010 Guardian 10 July (Guide Suppl.) 86/2 Jimmy Doherty learns about the origins, social behaviour and intelligence of chickens.

†b. A young bird other than that of the domestic fowl; a nestling; = chick n.¹ 5. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > young bird > [noun]

birdOE

chicka1398

chickena1398

brancher?a1400

pulla1500

birdling1611

puler1611

pullus1653

squeaker1654

birdeen1829

chicklet1836

baby bird1841

chirpling1888

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. xii. xxxii. 638 Þe pocok..haþ chikenes in þe ende of þre ȝere.

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 167^v The [Turkey's] Chickines being hatched vnder a Henne, may be kept with the Hennes Chickins.

1651 W. G. tr. J. Cowell Inst. Lawes Eng. 58 The Chickins or young ones of such Birds as build in my Trees.

1780 W. Cowper Fable 3 A raven..on her wicker-work high mounted Her chickens prematurely counted.

1870 tr. C. G. Leroy Intelligence & Perfectibility Animals v. 70 The hen pheasant is much less careful to call her chickens together and keep them near her.

2. A chicken or its flesh used as food.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > fowls > [noun] > chicken

chicken1381

March chick1600

poulet1764

spring chicken1765

chicken meat1826

murgi1863

broiler1876

petit poussin1895

poussin1900

fryer1923

murgh1976

1381 Diuersa Servicia in C. B. Hieatt & S. Butler Curye on Inglysch (1985) 64 Nym kedys or chekenys & hew hem in morsellys.

c1405 (c1387–95) G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 382 To boille the chiknes [c1415 Corpus Oxf. chikenes, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 chekenys] with the Marybones.

1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. ii. iii. f. xvi^v A brothe of stamped and strayned almandes, in the brothe of a chicken wyth a lytle suggre.

1654 J. Cooper Art of Cookery 16 Dish the Chickens and pour this sauce on them, laying on the chickens boyled Aspuragus, hard Lettuce scalded, a little handful of scalded Gooseberries.

1760 T. Warton Idler 26 Jan. 25 The Company may..refresh themselves with cold Tongue, Chicken, and French Rolls.

1881 Judy 30 Mar. 155/1 Sloper had roast chicken for dinner.

1901 Mass. Ploughman 28 Sept. 6/3 Put the largest slice of chicken in the centre of the dish.

2002 Times 13 July 45/1 It put me off eating chicken for the next 20 years.

3. Usually with distinguishing word. Any of various other birds that resemble chickens in some way, esp. (in North America) grouse of the genera Tympanuchus and Centrocercus.meadow chicken, prairie chicken, sage chicken, etc.: see the first element.See also Mother Carey's chicken n. at Mother Carey n. 1.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Tetraonidae (grouse) > [noun] > genus Tympanuchus > tympanuchus cupido (prairie-chicken)

pheasant1625

mountain cock1791

prairie fowl1804

prairie hen1804

prairie cock1805

pinnated grouse1811

chicken1812

prairie chicken1832

prairie grouse1851

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Tetraonidae (grouse) > [noun] > genus Tympanuchus > tympanuchus phasianellus (pintail)

pheasant grouse1772

chicken1812

pintail1879

1812 J. C. Luttig Jrnl. Exped. Upper Missouri 14 Oct. (1920) 86 4 Men went out to hunt..got this Day 21 Chickens.

1832 Amer. Turf Reg. & Sporting Mag. Aug. 589 The French Creoles call them ‘des Phesants’, the pheasants, or ‘poule de prairie’, ‘prairie chicken’, by which latter name, and ‘prairie hen’, all the people of Illinois and Missouri call them.

1888 G. Trumbull Names & Portraits Birds 132 At East Haddam, Conn., it [sc. Porzana carolina] is the Meadow Chicken.

1902 O. Wister Virginian iv. 53 We..shot some young sage chickens, which were good at supper, roasted at our camp-fire.

1959 Calgary (Alberta) Herald 1 Aug. 19/1 He has seen a chicken isolated from others by sagebrush dancing in perfect harmony.

2002 National Geographic Mar. 55 (caption) Prairie-chickens. The Attwater's..is closely related to other grouse with the ‘prairie-chicken’ moniker.

II. A person likened to a chicken.

a. A child. Frequently in figurative contexts with reference to sense 1a. Cf. chick n.¹ 1. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > child > [noun]

wenchelc890

childeOE

littleOE

littlingOE

hired-childc1275

smalla1300

brolla1325

innocentc1325

chickc1330

congeonc1330

impc1380

faunt1382

young onec1384

scionc1390

weea1400

birdc1405

chickenc1440

enfaunta1475

small boyc1475

whelp1483

burden1490

little one1509

brat?a1513

younkerkin1528

kitling1541

urchin1556

loneling1579

breed1586

budling1587

pledge?1587

ragazzo1591

simplicity1592

bantling1593

tadpole1594

two-year-old1594

bratcheta1600

lambkin1600

younker1601

dandling1611

buda1616

eyas-musketa1616

dovelinga1618

whelplinga1618

puppet1623

butter printa1625

chit1625

piggy1625

ninnyc1626

youngster1633

fairya1635

lap-child1655

chitterling1675

squeaker1676

cherub1680

kid1690

wean1692

kinchin1699

getlingc1700

totum17..

charity-child1723

small girl1734

poult1739

elfin1748

piggy-wiggy1766

piccaninny1774

suck-thumb18..

teeny1802

olive1803

sprout1813

stumpie1820

sexennarian1821

totty1822

toddle1825

toddles1828

poppet1830

brancher1833

toad1836

toddler1837

ankle-biter1840

yarkera1842

twopenny1844

weeny1844

tottykins1849

toddlekins1852

brattock1858

nipper1859

sprat1860

ninepins1862

angelet1868

tenas man1870

tad1877

tacker1885

chavvy1886

joey1887

toddleskin1890

thumb-sucker1891

littlie1893

peewee1894

tyke1894

che-ild1896

kiddo1896

mother's bairn1896

childling1903

kipper1905

pick1905

small1907

God forbid1909

preadolescent1909

subadolescent1914

toto1914

snookums1919

tweenie1919

problem child1920

squirt1924

trottie1924

tiddler1927

subteen1929

perisher1935

poopsie1937

pre-schooler1937

pre-teen1938

pre-teener1940

juvie1941

sprog1944

pikkie1945

subteenager1947

pre-teenager1948

pint-size1954

saucepan lid1960

rug rat1964

smallie1984

bosom-child-

c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 4181 (MED) The churles chekyne hade chaungyde his armes.

1603 W. Muggins Londons Mourning Garment sig. C2 From me quite, my youngest Chicken swept; Then to the other, he full nimbly leapt.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iv. iii. 219. All my pretty Chickens, and their Damme At one fell swoope?

1642 T. Taylor God's Judgem. ii. vi. 82 A chicken of the same broode was Messalina.

1895 ‘Pansy’ Making Fate iii. 34 Dear me, child! I am not used to having my youngest chicken go out from the nest.

2012 @Leprakans 10 Jan. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) I just told the Chickens they could not have lunch until they cleaned up the playroom. Genius or blackmail?

b. As a term of endearment or affectionate form of address, esp. for a woman or child. Also formerly: †a loved one, esp. a spouse (obsolete). Cf. chick n.¹ 2.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a child

chickc1330

dillydowna1500

dilling1584

dotey1663

cherub1680

dilli-darling1693

dilli-minion1693

chickabiddy?1775

chicken1809

dote1809

chick-a-diddle1826

sock-lamb1838

sock1840

childie1848

chickadee1860

doy1862

diddums1893

pumpkin1900

poopsie1937

bubele1959

1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments sig. g.i^v/1 Who then tendering the teares of his deare chyckin, directed to him letters again by the same messenger.

1619 Two Wise Men & All Rest Fooles vii. ii. 99 Heere is a token for thee my chicken.

1677 T. D'Urfey Fond Husband ii. ii. 15 I'll be very sharp upon her; I'll pinch her severely faith, for all she's my Chicken.

1682 T. Shadwell Lancashire-witches ii. 21 Pray mind my Chicken, she's the best bred Woman in the Country!

1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas IV. x. x. 136 Well! my chicken, said he..are you satisfied?

1956 E. Hahn Francie comes Home iii. 26 Pop hadn't seemed to be listening to the women's chatter, but now he said, ‘Don't worry, chicken; you're all right.’

2016 @alicegracejazz 23 Feb. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) This pretty little lady..is on her way to visit me! Can't wait to see you chicken.

5. A stupid or foolish person; a fool. Cf. goose n. 1f. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > foolish person, fool > fool, simpleton > [noun]

boinarda1300

daffc1325

goky1377

nicea1393

unwiseman1400

totc1425

alphinc1440

dawc1500

hoddypeak1500

dawpatea1529

hoddypolla1529

noddy1534

kimec1535

coxcomb1542

sheep1542

sheep's head1542

goose1547

dawcock1556

nodgecock1566

peak-goosea1568

hottie tottie?c1570

Tom Towly1582

wittol1588

goose-cap1589

nodgecomb1592

ninny1593

chicken1600

fopdoodle16..

hoddy-noddy1600

hoddy-doddy1601

peagoose1606

fopster1607

nazold1607

nupson1607

wigeon1607

fondrel1613

simpleton1639

pigwidgeon1640

simpletonian1652

Tony1654

nizy1673

Simple Simon?1673

Tom Farthing1674

totty-head1680

cockcomb1684

cod1699

nikin1699

sap-pate1699

simpkin1699

mackninnya1706

gilly-gaupus?1719

noodle1720

sapskull1735

gobbin?1746

Judy1781

zanya1784

spoony1795

sap-head1798

spoon1799

gomerel1814

sap1815

neddy1818

milestone1819

sunket1823

sunketa1825

gawp1825

gawpy1825

gawpus1826

Tomnoddy1826

Sammy1828

tammie norie1828

Tommy1828

gom1834

noodlehead1835

nowmun1854

gum-sucker1855

flat-head1862

peggy1869

noodledum1883

jay1884

toot1888

peanut head1891

simp1903

sappyhead1922

Arkie1927

putz1928

steamer1932

jerk-off1939

drongo1942

galah1945

Charley1946

nong-nong1959

mouth-breather1979

twonk1981

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > person of weak intellect > [noun] > simpleton

innocentc1386

greenhead1576

gonyc1580

ninnyhammer1592

chicken1600

loach1605

simplician1605

hichcock1607

smelt1607

foppasty1611

dovea1616

goslinga1616

funge1621

simplicity1633

gewgaw1634

squab1640

simpletonian1652

ninny-whoop1653

softhead1654

foppotee1663

greenhorn1672

sumph1682

sawney1699

sillyton1708

gaby?1746

gobbin?1746

green goose1768

nin-a-kin1787

Jacob1811

green1824

sillikin1832

greeny1834

softhorn1836

sucker1838

softie1850

dope1851

soft1854

verigreen1854

peanut1864

daftie1872

josser1886

naïf1891

yapc1894

barm-stick1924

knobhead1931

sook1933

nig-nog1953

sawn1953

pronk1959

stiffy1965

1600 W. Kemp Nine Daies Wonder sig. D4 All his anger turned to laughter: swearing it did him good to haue ill words of a hoddy doddy, a habber de hoy, a chicken, a squib, a squall.

1794 W. Godwin Caleb Williams III. vi. 112 You are not such a chicken as to suppose, if so be as you are innocent, that that will make your game altogether sure.

1859 N.Y. Herald 30 Aug. (Morning ed.) 4/4 He is not such a chicken as to have ever given a copy of that letter without the certain knowledge and deliberate intention that it should appear in the New York papers.

1921 R. M. Ayres Winds of World i. v. 54 Why you silly chicken—you ought to be simply wild with delight!

2016 @josienotjodie 27 Nov. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) ‘When you go out next week don't get too drunk just bc you can’. Maria you silly chicken, it'll be a miracle if me and liver make it home.

6. A faint-hearted person; a coward.In later use frequently with reference or allusion to the game of ‘chicken’; cf. sense 13 and chicken adj.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [noun] > coward(s)

coward?a1289

hen-hearta1450

staniel?a1500

pigeon?1571

cow1581

quake-breech1584

cow-baby1594

custard1598

chicken heart1602

nidget1605

hen?1613

faintling1614

white-liver1614

chickena1616

quake-buttocka1627

skitterbrooka1652

dunghill1761

cow-heart1768

shy-cock1768

fugie1777

slag1788

man of chaff1799

fainter1826

possum1833

cowardy, cowardy, custard1836

sheep1840

white feather1857

funk1859

funkstick1860

lily-liver1860

faint-heart1870

willy boy1895

blert1905

squib1908

fraid cat (also fraidy cat)c1910–23

manso1912

feartie1923

yellowbelly1927

chicken liver1930

boneless wonder1931

scaredy-cat1933

sook1933

pantywaist1935

punk1939

ringtail1941

chickenshit1945

candy-ass1953

pansy-ass1963

unbrave1981

bottler1994

a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) v. v. 42 Forthwith they flye Chickens, the way which they stopt Eagles.

1633 T. Stafford Pacata Hibernia i. xix. 111 Not finding the Defendants to be Chikins, to be afraid..of every cloud or kite.

1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. ii. v. 192 I am not afraid of dying with a Blow or two neither; I am not such a Chicken as that.

1835 C. Dickens in Bell's Life in London 29 Nov. Hold up your head, you chicken.

1885 Leicester Chron. & Leics. Mercury 29 Aug. (Suppl.) 4/2 ‘I shan't do the job!’ said Charlie. ‘No, I didn't think you would; you're too much of a chicken.’

1990 K. William Enid's Story v. 58 I want to go to that new horror movie, but I'm such a chicken. I don't know if I could really go through with it.

2011 @MattyA_Taylor 15 June in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Wisdom teeth coming out tomorrow. I'm a massive chicken when it comes to anything medical..can't sleep!

2015 Sc. Express (Nexis) 5 Apr. 58 Vin Diesel's Dom and Jason Statham's scowling villain, Deckard Shaw, have a habit of racing into each other head-on, both too macho (or more likely stupid) to be the ‘chicken’ who veers away.

7. A young or inexperienced person. Now chiefly in to be no chicken and variants: to be no longer young. Cf. to be no spring chicken at spring chicken n. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > young person > [noun] > young and inexperienced person

colta1225

chicken1691

hopeful1720

pup1887

the world > people > person > adult > be adult [verb (intransitive)]

to be no chicken1727

to be no spring chicken1857

1691 J. Wilson Belphegor ii. iii. 20 Thou'rt a meer Chicken, Girl.

1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 216. ⁋2 You ought to consider you are now past a Chicken; this Humour, which was well enough in a Girl, is insufferable in one of your Motherly Character.

1727 J. Swift Stella's Birth-day: 1720 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. iii. 152 Pursue your Trade of Scandal-picking, Your Hints, that Stella is no Chicken.

1809 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 25 Mar. 421 An infant at law? A mere chicken?

1954 Daily Mail 28 Apr. 4/4 He is 66 years old, no chicken, and not particularly robust.

2019 @VPerratore 20 Mar. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Shouldn't she consider her age and present state of health? She's no chicken!

8. slang (chiefly U.S.). A prostitute (now rare); a promiscuous woman. In later use also: a woman regarded as a sexual object (cf. chick n.¹ 3).

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute

meretrixOE

whoreOE

soiled dovea1250

common womanc1330

putec1384

bordel womanc1405

putaina1425

brothelc1450

harlot?a1475

public womanc1510

naughty pack?1529

draba1533

cat1535

strange woman1535

stew1552

causey-paikera1555

putanie?1566

drivelling1570

twigger1573

punka1575

hackney1579

customer1583

commodity1591

streetwalker1591

traffic1591

trug1591

hackster1592

polecat1593

stale1593

mermaid1595

medlar1597

occupant1598

Paphian1598

Winchester goose1598

pagan1600

hell-moth1602

aunt1604

moll1604

prostitution1605

community1606

miss1606

night-worm1606

bat1607

croshabell1607

prostitute1607

pug1607

venturer1607

nag1608

curtal1611

jumbler1611

land-frigate1611

walk-street1611

doll-common1612

turn-up1612

barber's chaira1616

commonera1616

public commonera1616

trader1615

venturea1616

stewpot1616

tweak1617

carry-knave1623

prostibule1623

fling-dusta1625

mar-taila1625

night-shadea1625

waistcoateera1625

night trader1630

coolera1632

meretrician1631

painted ladya1637

treadle1638

buttock1641

night-walker1648

mob?1650

lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651

lady of pleasure1652

trugmullion1654

fallen woman1659

girlc1662

high-flyer1663

fireship1665

quaedama1670

small girl1671

visor-mask1672

vizard-mask1672

bulker1673

marmalade-madam1674

town miss1675

town woman1675

lady of the night1677

mawks1677

fling-stink1679

Whetstone whore1684

man-leech1687

nocturnal1693

hack1699

strum1699

fille de joie1705

market-dame1706

screw1725

girl of (the) town1733

Cytherean1751

street girl1764

monnisher1765

lady of easy virtue1766

woman (also lady) of the town1766

kennel-nymph1771

chicken1782

stargazer1785

loose fish1809

receiver general1811

Cyprian1819

mollya1822

dolly-mop1834

hooker1845

charver1846

tail1846

horse-breaker1861

professional1862

flagger1865

cocodette1867

cocotte1867

queen's woman1871

common prostitute1875

joro1884

geisha1887

horizontal1888

flossy1893

moth1896

girl of the pavement1900

pross1902

prossie1902

pusher1902

split-arse mechanic1903

broad1914

shawl1922

bum1923

quiff1923

hustler1924

lady of the evening1924

prostie1926

working girl1928

prostisciutto1930

maggie1932

brass1934

brass nail1934

mud kicker1934

scupper1935

model1936

poule de luxe1937

pro1937

chromo1941

Tom1941

pan-pan1949

twopenny upright1958

scrubber1959

slack1959

yum-yum girl1960

Suzie Wong1962

mattress1964

jamette1965

ho1966

sex worker1971

pavement princess1976

parlour girl1979

crack whore1990

society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > [noun] > sexual indulgence > unchaste behaviour of woman > unchaste or loose woman

queanOE

whorec1175

malkinc1275

wenchelc1300

ribalda1350

strumpeta1350

wench1362

filtha1375

parnelc1390

sinner14..

callet1415

slut?c1425

tickle-tailc1430

harlot?a1475

mignote1489

kittock?a1500

mulea1513

trulla1516

trully?1515

danta1529

miswoman1528

stewed whore1532

Tib1533

unchaghe1534

flag1535

Katy1535

jillet1541

yaud1545

housewife1546

trinkletc1550

whippet1550

Canace1551

filthy1553

Jezebel1558

kittyc1560

loonc1560

laced mutton1563

nymph1563

limmer1566

tomboy1566

Marian1567

mort1567

cockatrice1568

franion1571

blowze1573

rannell1573

rig1575

Kita1577

poplet1577

light-skirts1578

pucelle1578

harlotry1584

light o' lovea1586

driggle-draggle1588

wagtail1592

tub-tail1595

flirt-gill1597

minx1598

hilding1599

short-heels1599

bona-roba1600

flirt1600

Hiren1600

light-heels1602

roba1602

baggage1603

cousin1604

fricatrice1607

rumbelow1611

amorosa1615

jaya1616

open-taila1618

succubus1622

snaphancea1625

flap1631

buttered bun1638

puffkin1639

vizard1652

fallen woman1659

tomrigg1662

cunt1663

quaedama1670

jilt1672

crack1677

grass-girl1691

sporting girl1694

sportswoman1705

mobbed hood1707

brim1736

trollop1742

trub1746

demi-rep1749

gillyflower1757

lady of easy virtue1766

mot1773

chicken1782

gammerstang1788

buer1807

scarlet woman1816

blowen1819

fie-fie1820

shickster?1834

streel1842

charver1846

trolly1854

bad girl1855

amateur1862

anonyma1862

demi-virgin1864

pickup1871

chippy1885

wish-wife1886

tart1887

tartleta1890

flossy1893

fly girl1893

demi-mondaine1894

floozy1899

slattern1899

scrub1900

demi-vierge1908

cake1909

coozie1912

muff1914

tarty1918

yes-girl1920

radge1923

bike1945

puta1948

messer1951

cooze1955

jamette1965

skeezer1986

slutbag1987

chickenhead1988

ho1988

1782 J. Caske Tricipitina 13 A little excuse may be made for them that shew their insolence to the keeper of a brothel and his crew, for procuring sometimes a rot—— or stale fowl, instead of a tender young chicken.

1788 New Hampsh. Spy 10 June 54 Visiting Bagnio's, those seats of despair, Where chickens will call you ‘my duck and my dear’, In hopes that your purse may fall to their share.

1860 G. D. Prentice Prenticeana 97 Call a lady ‘a chicken’, and ten to one she is angry. Tell her she is ‘no chicken’, and twenty to one she is still angrier.

1913 G. J. Kneeland Commercialized Prostitution i. 13 I know where there are a lot of chickens.

1972 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight 149 Another teacher, a curvy little chicken in a hot pink mini.

2006 ‘LL Cool J’ et al. Preserve the Sexy (transcribed from song, feat. ‘Teairra Marí’) in Todd Smith Too many chickens gettin laid and watch they reputations fade.

a. U.S. Navy slang. A ship's boy, esp. one under the protection or care of a more experienced sailor. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1840 Special Court Martial Daniel Lupenny in Rec. Proc. Gen. Courts Martial & Courts of Inq. U.S. Navy Dept. XXXIX. Case No. 761 257 Was you a chicken of Daniel Lupenny on board the Marion?

1848 Narr. Late Exped. to Dead Sea 4 Dec. (1849) xlvii. 331 The specimens from Lot's Wife Monument are being broken and rebroken, so that ‘Jack and his chicken’ may each have a piece.

1879 J. McElroy Andersonville xlvii. 361 He was brought into the Hospital, and the old fellow whose ‘chicken’ he was, was allowed to accompany and nurse him.

1896 A. Sinclair Two Years on Alabama (ed. 3) vii. 121 He is engaged in embroidering, with silks of many colors, the collar of a frock for his ‘chicken’.

1932 Leatherneck July 21/3 Richard Schobel, the chicken of the ship, has what the women go wild about, mainly, youth, beauty and innocence.

b. U.S. Military slang. A young or new recruit. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1887 J. D. Billings Hardtack & Coffee xviii. 333 There was no man in my company—from old Graylocks, of nearly sixty, down to the callow ‘chicken’ of seventeen—but what felt qualified to fill such a bill.

1950 National Geographic Mag. Nov. 661/1 In that whole exhausting ten weeks, no ‘chicken’—as they call the recruits—dares even so much as speak.

1965 C. Koch Casual Company i. i. 7 I've got retreads, and chickens bloated with fever, but they turn to at reveille.

10. slang (originally and chiefly U.S.). A young homosexual man, esp. a young male prostitute. Also: a boy or young man regarded as a sexual object by another (typically older) man (cf. chickenhawk n. 2).

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > homosexuality > [noun] > a homosexual person > male > boy or youth

bardash1550

catamite?1552

Ganymede1558

ingle1592

ningle1602

Ganymedean1603

pathic1605

prostitute1654

love-boy1655

punk1698

chicken1914

tart1935

bumboy1937

mo1968

1914 Sacramento (Calif.) Bee 23 Nov. 6/2 They demand young boys—‘chickens’, they call them—and they will stoop to almost anything to satisfy their desire in this regard.

1945 T. Williams Let. 2 Mar. in Lett. to Donald Windham (1977) 164 I think it was because I was getting more chickens than he was. I have three 17 year old ones..on the string and he seems to resent it.

1977 Time 15 Aug. 31/1 Grandfatherly ‘chicken hawks’, men in their 50s and 60s, haggle with ‘chickens’, teen-age boy hustlers, through the windows of Cadillacs.

2002 Chicken-chasing at ‘Gay Proms’ in alt.politics.homosexuality (Usenet newsgroup) 14 Aug. All those ‘high school’ gay men..can go to a prom and hit on Raw Chickens as young as 14!

III. Other uses.

11. A game of hazard played for low stakes; = chicken hazard n. Cf. hazard n. 1. Now rare.Largely superseded by sense 13.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > games of chance > dice-playing > [noun] > other dice games

rafflec1405

passagec1425

treygobet1426

mumchance1528

trey-trip1564

lots?1577

novum?1577

fox-mine-host1622

in and in1630

merry main1664

snake1688

pass-dice1753

chicken hazard1781

Shaking in the Shallow1795

sequin hazard1825

chuck-a-luck1836

Newmarket1837

chicken1849

poker dice1870

under and over1890

sweat1894

crown and anchor1902

Murrumbidgee1917

beetle1936

liar dice1946

Yahtzee1957

1849 Bentley's Misc. Mar. 283 We had a merry time of it all the way to town! slanging the fellows in the neighbouring den playing ‘chicken’,—literally a ‘hell in harness’.

1865 Daily Tel. 5 Dec. 3/4 ‘Don't go; let's have a little chicken’... A ‘little chicken’ does not mean a wing and a little weak white wine and water, but the rattling of certain ivory cubes in a little leather box.

1866 Baily's Monthly Mag. June 306 ‘How did you sleep, Jem?’ asked our host of the party. ‘Never closed my eyes,’ said Jem—(it was true, for he had played ‘Chicken’ till 7.45)—‘those confounded nightingales made such a row!’

1932 Thomasville (Georgia) Times-Enterprise 23 June 3/1 He does not mind staying out until all hours playing chicken.

12. Military slang (chiefly U.S.). An eagle emblem, spec. the insignia of the rank of colonel. Cf. chicken colonel n.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military organization > insignia > [noun] > other specific marks, etc.

gorget1786

scale1846

eagle1851

chicken1918

1918 Sydney Stock & Station Jrnl. 20 Dec. 2/5 There was a [German] General in a shining hilmet [sic] with a gold chicken on the top of it.

1920 H. H. Bissell Hist. Sixty-third U.S. Infantry, 1917–19 254 You ain't no officer, you ain't got no chicken on your shoulders.

1956 G. Rock Hist. Amer. Field Service iv. 127 The new Company's cars were painted with an insignia..chosen after a Company-wide competition—an eagle with a top hat against a red cross... The chickens had been painted on all the cars.

1982 W. E. B. Griffin Captains viii. 195 Jiggs's job was in the rear on the radio and the telephone, shaking his brand-new silver chicken in people's faces.

2003 M. Jenkins Last Ridge xv. 247 When he spotted the ‘chicken’ on his shoulder and a 10th Mountain patch, Hames walked over and saluted.

13. Chiefly in to play chicken.

a. A game in which the first person to lose his or her nerve and withdraw from an increasingly dangerous situation is the loser. Also in extended use with reference to any risky or dangerous situation. Cf. chicken adj.The game is typically played by driving cars towards each other at speed or by standing in front of fast-moving vehicles.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > other specific games > [noun] > others

sitisota1400

papsea1450

half-bowl1477

pluck at the crow1523

white and black1555

running game1581

blow-pointa1586

hot cocklesa1586

one penny1585

cockelty bread1595

pouch1600

venter-point1600

hinch-pinch1603

hardhead1606

poor and rich1621

rowland-hoe1622

hubbub1634

handicap?a1653

owl1653

ostomachy1656

prelledsa1660

quarter-spellsa1660

yert-point1659

bob-her1702

score1710

parson has lost his cloak1712

drop (also throw) (the) handkerchief1754

French Fox1759

goal1765

warpling o' the green1768

start1788

kiss-in-the-ring1801

steal-clothes1809

steal-coat1816

petits paquets1821

bocce1828

graces1831

Jack-in-the-box1836

hot hand1849

sparrow-mumbling1852

Aunt Sally1858

gossip1880

Tambaroora1882

spoof1884

fishpond1892

nim1901

diabolo1906

Kim's game1908

beaver1910

treasure-hunt1913

roll-down1915

rock scissors paper1927

scissors cut paper1927

scissors game1927

the dozens1928

toad in the hole1930

game1932

scissors paper stone1932

Roshambo1936

Marco Polo1938

scavenger hunt1940

skish1940

rock paper scissors1947

to play chicken1949

sounding1962

joning1970

arcade game1978

society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > other specific games > [verb (intransitive)] > other specific games

to give a woman a green gowna1586

to play the dozens1928

to play chicken1949

1949 Collier's 28 May 76/4 Compared to Russian roulette,..‘chicken’ has the advantage in that if you win, you take your friends with you.

1949 Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gaz. 12 Nov. 16/7 A recent automobile accident which resulted in death to occupants of the cars was the result of playing ‘chicken’.

1962 Times 18 May 13/3 The spectacle of jay walkers playing chicken against the lights may be seen every day.

2013 Times & Transcript (New Brunswick) (Nexis) 2 July d4 This isn't just building on a flood plain, which is inadvisable enough, it's playing chicken with nature.

2018 Kent Messenger (Nexis) 18 Oct. Those who play chicken in the street or on the train tracks. I'm not sure your family will see the funny side of it should you slip.

b. figurative with reference to a situation or confrontation in which those on one side of an issue refuse to negotiate, hoping that the opposition will back down first.

ΚΠ

1951 Coe Cosmos (Coe Coll., Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 25 Oct. (Homecoming ed.) 4/1 World politics is no place to play ‘chicken’.

1986 Economist 8 Feb. 13/1 Mr Reagan is not budging, determined to play chicken on the deficit for a bit longer.

2009 Financial Times 26 May 11/1 [Mr Piëch, who] is one of the company's largest shareholders, pushes through decisions and plays chicken with anyone who crosses his path.

2019 Medicine Hat (Alberta) News (Nexis) 3 Dec. (Final ed.) b4 Our illustrious and gaudily-socked prime minister is playing chicken with the U.S.

14. Any of several popular dances in which participants imitate bird movements in a synchronized routine, typically performed to a lively tune or song; = chicken dance n. 1. Chiefly in to do the chicken. Cf. funky chicken n. at funky adj.¹ Compounds.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > lively dances > [noun] > others

hove-dance1390

tricotee1659

saltarello1724

écossaise1806

fling1806

carmagnole1827

gallopade1831

gallopading1833

polka1837

redowa1843

chicken dance1845

polking1845

schottische1849

Highland or Balmoral Schottische1882

kinkajou1927

knees up, Mother Brown1939

chicken1957

1957 B. Emerson (title of song) Do the chicken.

1978 Washington Post 10 Oct. (Style section) b9/5 We've had a series of dances whose names are almost invariably indicators of their strangeness—the Jitterbug..superseded by The Bop, The Chicken (and The Funky Chicken), The Philly Dog [etc.].

1992 Telegram & Gaz. (Worcester, Mass.) 19 Aug. b4 Kampe went on to tell the guests at the dinner-dance to ‘get out and get your body moving and do the chicken’, which is just what they did.

2012 D. Moss Thirteen Ways looking at Man viii. 115 I'd rock around my room, doing the chicken, shaking my head, screaming my lungs out.

Phrases

P1. Proverbs and proverbial phrases.

a. children and chicken should always be picking (also †eating) and variants: children and chickens should eat as much food as they like in order to grow rapidly. Now rare and regional.

ΚΠ

1562 T. Tusser Hundreth Good Poyntes Husbandry (rev. ed.) f. 38 Yong children & chickens would euer be eating, good seruauntes looke duely for gentle entreating.

1584 T. Cogan Hauen of Health ccxiii. 195 Wherfore in youth especially while we are in growing, we should feede more largely, and nature it selfe doth as it appeareth in children. For (as it is saide) Children and chicken, would be alwaies picking.

1742 J. Hurlock Pract. Treat. Dentition viii. 169 Those, who fondly attached to that weak, but prevailing Maxim.., viz. Children, like Chicken, are always a picking; make it a general Rule of Conduct..in giving whatever the Stomach seems to bear, and that as often as it can be received.

1929 Folk-lore 40 123 Children should always be allowed the food they want. ‘Children and chicken, Should always be picken.’

2018 @adoolan34 1 Apr. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) An elderly friend has a saying; ‘Children and chickens are always pickin’!

b. don't count your chickens (before they are hatched) and variants: don't be too confident in anticipating success or good fortune before it is certain.

ΚΠ

?1570 T. Howell Newe Sonets sig. C.ij Counte not thy Chickens that vnhatched be, Waye wordes as winde, till thou finde certaintee.

1577 W. Fulke Two Treat. against Papistes ii. ii. vii. 273 But that you loue to tell your chickens before they be hatched, you neede not greatly to boast of your winnings.

1772 J. Thompson Double Discov. in Poems ii. iii. 232 We have only been counting our chickens, before they were hatch'd.

1871 Quiver 11 Mar. 366/2 ‘Mother, five shillings a week is a regular fortune! I'll be able to give you a fine warm shawl at Christmas’... ‘Don't reckon your chickens before they are hatched’, said Mrs. Wilson.

2014 @jhbroch 11 May in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Don't want to count my chickens but it seems I've won May's fantasy football!

c. curses, like chickens, come home to roost and variants: an unkind action will recoil unfavourably on the originator. Also allusively in the chickens come home to roost. Cf. to come home to roost at roost n.¹ Phrases 1d.Compare the following quotation, expressing a similar sentiment:

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Parson's Tale (Ellesmere) (1877) §620 Swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym þat curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.

ΚΠ

1810 R. Southey Curse of Kehama (title page) Curses are like young chicken, they always come home to roost.

1900 Shields Daily Gaz. 5 Jan. (Second ed.) Their time will come later, when the Ministerial chickens come home to roost.

1920 Far Eastern Rev. Aug. 392/2 Boycotts, like curses and chickens, come home to roost.

2018 Advertiser (Austral.) (Nexis) 24 Oct. 18 The chickens could really come home to roost as climate change deepens and droughts get more intense and more common.

P2. Chiefly U.S. Politics. a chicken in every pot (and a car in every garage) and variants: enough food, wealth, etc., for the whole population to share or participate in the benefits; prosperity for everyone. [The phrase a chicken in every pot originated as a paraphrase of a declaration famously attributed to Henry IV of France (see quot. 1830): Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu'il n'y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n'ait les moyens d'avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot! ‘If God keeps me, I will make sure that no peasant in my realm will lack the means to have a chicken in his pot on Sundays!’ The idea was taken up by Herbert Hoover, who, as U.S. presidential candidate in 1928, said: ‘The slogan of progress is changing from the “full dinner pail” to the full garage’. This was paraphrased as a chicken in every pot and a car in every back yard (or garage ) in election material for his campaign; see, e.g., quot. 1928.]

ΚΠ

1830 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 564/2 The benevolent and amiable wish of Henry IV, that every peasant may have his chicken in his pot on Sunday.]

1928 San Antonio (Texas) Light 19 Oct. (Home ed.) a10/1 (advt.) A Chicken For Every Pot... Republican prosperity has reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial 'chicken in every pot.' And a car in every back yard, to boot.

1950 E. Lipscomb Grassroots Public Relations for Agric. iv. 48 While factories may produce payrolls sufficient to pay for a chicken in every pot, the pot will..be empty unless chicken farmers have the freedom..to continue raising chickens.

1992 Independent 20 Apr. 17/6 What is happening in the cities..of Asia is more like the America of the Twenties..than anything else. ‘A car in every garage and a chicken in every pot’..sums up the current aspirations.

2018 Orange County (Calif.) Reg. (Nexis) 1 Apr. h1 It's a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage;..free college for everybody; and well, ‘Make America great again!’..all rolled into one.

P3. chicken of the sea: any of various types of fish known for their mild flavour. A proprietary name.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > seafood > [noun] > fish

fishc825

meat fish1511

dogfish1612

cetaries1661

fishery1828

chicken of the sea1836

fish food1883

1836 Scenes of Commerce 97 The whiting has been called the chicken of the sea, from its want of flavour; but its flesh is wholesome.

1929 Daily Mail 27 Aug. 7/6 Halibut is the chicken of the sea. A tender and delicate fish.

2005 D. Nicholls Understudy 129 A..restaurant in the West Village, with a kitchen that smelt like a rock-pool, and a chef who somehow managed to make tuna actually taste like the chicken of the sea.

P4. chicken-and-(the-)egg: used as a modifier, designating the apparent paradox posed by the question ‘Which came first: the chicken or the egg?’, expressing the problem of determining which of two entities or events should be considered the cause and which the effect when each appears to depend on the prior existence of the other.This particular example of the problem is first recorded in Plutarch ( Quaestiones Conviviales 635 E ff.); cf. quot. 1603 at hen n.¹ Phrases 4. The relationship between actual and potential entities had previously been discussed by Aristotle ( Metaphysics 1049 b).Now more common than the earlier hen-and-(the)-egg at hen n.¹ Phrases 4.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > [phrase] > chicken-and-the-egg

hen-and-egg1855

chicken-and-(the-)egg1857

1857 Boston Investigator 18 Nov. ‘All acorns come from oaks, and all oaks come from acorns’, like the chicken and egg problem quoted by ‘X. B.’, yet oaks will spring up where there are no acorns, and it is only where they come out of the ground, that their origin is any more obscure than a chicken originating spontaneously.

1967 Guardian 24 Feb. 8/5 The chicken-and-egg attitude towards the home background of addicts.

2018 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 24 Oct. b9 It's also a little bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, because the defence didn't help itself in the second half when it allowed the Riders offence to stay on the field.

P5. running around like a chicken with its head cut off (also like a chicken with no head) and variants: used to indicate frantic, unthinking, and often futile activity; = running around like a headless chicken at headless chicken n. 1.

ΘΚΠ

the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > move swiftly in specific manner [verb (intransitive)] > move swiftly and violently > rush around

scour1297

startlec1300

reelc1400

rammisha1540

gad1552

ramp1599

fling1620

to run rounda1623

rampage1791

to run around1822

to rip and tear1846

hella1864

running around like a chicken with its head cut off (also like a chicken with no head)1887

to haul ass1918

tear-arse1942

1887 N.Y. Times 9 Aug. 1/1 Some fulfillment came to this prophecy when one day the stuff went ricochetting around like a Spring chicken with its head cut off.

1911 Z. Grey Young Pitcher ix. 96 Ken played or essayed to play right field for a while, but he ran around like a chicken with its head off, as a Travers player expressed it.

1943 B. Bandel Let. 16 May in S. J. Bugbee Officer & Lady (2004) 103 I have been running around like a chicken with its head off, but I feel that I have got something done.

2001 Kitesurf Mag. Sept. 70 I was running around like a chicken with no head trying to get all my ‘crap’ together and get on the water.

P6. to choke the chicken: see choke v. Additions.

Compounds

C1.

a. As a modifier, in the names of dishes or foodstuffs made from chicken, or of which the principal ingredient is chicken, as in chicken curry, chicken gravy, chicken salad, chicken sandwich, chicken sausage, etc.Recorded earliest in chicken broth n.See also chicken pie n. (first attested 1584), chicken water n. (1684), chicken soup n. (1733), chicken fixings n. (1837), chicken gumbo n. (1847), chicken stock n. (1855), chicken supreme n. (1873), chicken noodle soup n. (1889), chicken à la King n. (1893), chicken finger n. (1900), chicken burger n. (1933), chicken Kiev at Kiev n. 1 (1938), chicken rice n. (1950), chicken nugget n. (1976).

ΚΠ

c1540 J. Drummond tr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova Def. of Age sig. A.iii^v These thynges may be amended with..chekyn broth, with due rest and slepe, and also with swete and odoryferous thynges.

1767 B. Clermont tr. Menon Art Mod. Cookery Displayed I. 191 (heading) Chicken Fricassee of different Manners.

1813 J. Simpson Compl. Syst. Cookery (ed. 3) 671 Chicken Panado. Boil a chicken in..stock,.., mince the breast and legs very fine, then pound it in a mortar [etc.].

1814 L. Tronchet Picture of Paris 126 (table) A chicken patty..2 10 [francs].

1848 New Eng. Offering July 78 I will only say that your chicken gravy ought to resemble melted lard, as near as may be.

1853 A. Soyer Pantropheon xvi. 138 Choose, among..fine sucking pigs,..the most worthy of the culinary sacrifice. Draw it by the upper part;..and fill it with chicken sausages chopped small, the flesh of thrushes, ortolans, and pork.

1871 Riddell's Indian Domest. Econ. & Receipt Bk. (ed. 7) 417 Chicken curry... Mathee ka bajee and fennel curry with meat.

1903 World (N.Y.) 22 Mar. (Metropolitan section) 4/5 Chaw main, which costs 75 cents, is chicken chop suey, served on a bed of crisp vermicella.

1929 Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-eye 18 Aug. (Mid-West Progress ed.) The village night-clubber who likes chicken sandwiches.

1932 M. R. Anand Curries 83 (heading) Chicken biriani.

1977 Washington Post 27 Oct. dc 8/2 We ordered chicken fried rice..for the children to share.

2009 Times 21 Nov. (Weekend Suppl.) 15/1 What better dishes to eat in winter than a bowl of rich meatballs in tomato sauce or a garlicky chicken casserole?

b. As a modifier, denoting a part of a chicken used as food, as in chicken wing, chicken leg, etc.Recorded earliest in chicken breast n. 1.See also chicken liver n. (first attested 1733), chicken meat n. 2 (1826), chicken fat n. (1833).

ΚΠ

1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. I4^v Grate some fat Bacon, season it with Pepper, Salt, two Anchovies, some Cives and Parsley shred small; mix these together, and stuff the Chicken Breasts with it.

1767 T. Bridges Homer Travestie (ed. 2) II. 40 Hard boil'd eggs, With penny-rolls and chicken legs.

1872 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 June 11/2 The corpulent lady..who devours the chicken wings and three-fourths of the asparagus.

2011 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 9 Mar. 5/5 It's difficult to end up with a flavourless, overcooked, shoe-leather dry chicken thigh.

c. As a modifier, denoting a shop, restaurant, or fast-food outlet which serves predominantly chicken, as in chicken shop, chicken restaurant, chicken takeaway.

ΚΠ

1830 Sporting Mag. Dec. 119/1 His father kept a chicken shop in the Poultry.

1903 Bulletin (Linneus, Missouri) 11 Nov. In connection with the farm a chicken restaurant will be operated at which poultry in all forms will be served to order.

1986 N.Y. Times 6 Apr. 28/6 Just the biker bar and the chicken shop to pass before home.

2018 @fangirlsince_88 23 Nov. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) There's nothing that makes you feel like some sort of millionaire than telling the lady at the chicken takeaway that she can keep the penny change!

C2. General use in various types of compound relating to the rearing, keeping, or selling of chickens, as in chicken farm, chicken farmer, chicken farming, chicken merchant, chicken raising, chicken rearer. See also chicken coop n. (first attested 1687), chicken house n. (1750), chicken cavie n. (?a1786), chicken thief n. (1852), chicken feed n. 2 (1843), chicken factory n. (1852), chicken run n. (1868), chicken wire n. (1887), chicken brooding n. (1902).

ΚΠ

1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God iii. xxi. 140 He that kept them was called Pullarius, the chickin-keeper.

1832 Edinb. Rev. 55 490 Young Nick, the chicken-merchant.

1872 Derby Mercury 28 Feb. 6/1 The instructions..if conscientiously observed, will result in much pleasure as well as profit to the chicken-farmer.

1887 I. Randall Lady's Ranche Life Montana 56 The worst of chicken farming here is, that in the summer there is a glut of eggs, about 6d a dozen.

1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Apr. 3/3 Another industry that could be well pushed into greater prominence is chicken raising.

1895 Outing 26 452/1 Wilson..owned a prosperous chicken farm.

1895 Daily News 9 Oct. 6/7 Silver medals were accorded..for the chicken rearer..and..a wheel-barrow fowl house.

1922 McClure's Mag. May 80/1 When the chicken farmer starts his incubators, his worries begin. He must keep them at a uniform temperature every minute..of every day for twenty-one days.

2015 Washington Post (Nexis) 10 Sept. Avian flu..has ravaged egg farms around the country, forcing chicken farmers to kill entire flocks.

C3. General use in various types of compound alluding to the supposed foolish or cowardly character of a chicken, as in chicken-minded, etc.Recorded earliest in chicken heart n. (first attested 1602).See also chicken-hearted adj. (1629), chicken-brained adj. (1678), chicken-livered adj. (1804), chicken-spirited adj. (1822), chicken-headed adj. (1842), chickenhead n. (1903), chicken liver n. 2 (1930), chickenshit adj. 3 (1940), chicken run n. 2 (1976), chicken run n. 3 (1995).

ΚΠ

1602 T. Dekker Blurt Master-Constable sig. C4 Such Chicken-heartes (and yet great quarrellers).

1629 G. Chapman tr. Funerall Oration in Iustification Nero 6 As red hayre on a man is a signe of trechery, what tis in a woman, let the sweet musique of rime inspire vs; a soft hayre chicken-hearted; a harsh hayre churlish natur'd; a flaxen hayre foolish brain'd.

1842 J. F. Cooper Two Admirals II. xi. 166 Was the prize in sight, or were you too chicken-headed to look?

1917 Sat. Evening Post 21 Apr. 121/2 The urge of this chicken-minded youngster is simply vanity.

2004 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 23 Oct. b8/2 You could forget that you're a big-boned, sort of shy chokester surrounded by chicken-headed girls and just assume..that you have style, grace and nerves of steel.

C4. General use in various types of compound alluding to the physical appearance of a chicken or its flesh.See chicken skin n. (first attested a1685), chicken glove n. (1762), chicken-breasted adj. at chicken breast n. Derivatives (1773), chicken flesh n. (1844), chicken dance n. (1845), chicken-toed adj. (1859), chicken colonel n. (1942).

C5. As a modifier, forming compounds in which the second element is considered small in size or unimportant.See chicken hazard n. ( first attested 1781), chicken stake n. (1785), chickenshit n. 1 (1929), chicken scratch n. 2b (1985).

C6. General use in various types of compound in the names of plants and animals.

chicken bird n. (a) a chicken (sense 1a); (b) (chiefly U.S. and New Zealand) any of various wild birds that resemble chickens in some way (cf. sense 3).

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) > young or chicken

chickenOE

chicka1398

poulta1425

chicken birdc1450

peepera1586

peepling1594

game chicken1674

peep1688

spring chicken1765

clucker1779

chickabiddy1785

chicklet1836

chickie1851

wing-chick1885

pee-pee1890

c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 4984 With bathe þe chekis & þe chauyls as a chykin brid.

1793 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 190/1 (table) Cat bird, or Chicken Bird... Muscicapa vertice nigro. Catesby.

1835 Laws Commonw. Mass. 8 Apr. cxxxvi. 506 He shall forfeit and pay, for each and every plover, curlew, dough-bird, or chicken bird, so taken.

1873 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 1872 5 217 It [sc. Gallinago pusilla] scratches the ground much in the manner of a fowl; from this habit the settlers have given it the name of the ‘chicken-bird’.

1955 Amer. Speech 30 182 The ruddy turnstone has a series of chicken names, probably given in recognition of its familiarity and comparative tameness. These include chicken (Mass.), chicken bird (Maine, Mass.), [etc.].

2001 C. Saechao in S. Guilloud Through Eyes of Judged 120 I knew that if I didn't hit that ‘chicken bird’ on the head I would have no chance in killing him.

chicken corn n. [in sense (a) after French maïs à poulet (1812 or earlier)] †(a) a variety of maize having small ears with yellow seeds (obsolete); †(b) wheat of an inferior grade or type (cf. hen corn n. at hen n.¹ Compounds 3) (obsolete); (c) U.S. sorghum, (in later use) esp. of an inferior type escaped from cultivation and considered to be a weed.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > food > corn, cereals, or grain > [noun] > inferior grain

hummel corn1474

multure corn1546

tailings1764

tail1775

chicken corna1817

screening1824

pilkins1859

tail-end1859

the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > cereal, corn, or grain > [noun] > millet > Indian millet > Indian millet plant or panicle

millc1450

millet1548

Saracen's corn1585

sorghum1597

Guinea corn1697

whisk1757

broom-straw1785

kaffir corn1785

jowari1800

jowar1801

chicken corna1817

broom corn1819

mabela1824

cholum1858

Texas millet1858

dura1882

pearl millet1887

kaoliang1904

proso1907

milo1920

a1817 T. Dwight Trav. New-Eng. & N.-Y. (1821) II. 312 The earliest, and smallest, of these [varieties of maize] is the Chicken corn.

1842 Leicester Chron. 3 Sept. In fact, what little chicken corn we have this year will make as much good bread as the best wheat of last season.

1854 B. L. C. Wailes Rep. Agric. & Geol. Mississippi iii. 188 I allude to the Holcas bicolor, Guinea Corn, or Chicken Corn, as it is variously termed.

1895 Wilts. County Mirror 27 Sept. 2/4 The second share has only yielded chicken corn.

1921 Weekly News Let. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 29 June 6/2 Since chicken corn is an annual, it should be readily destroyed during the cultivation of the corn.

2000 W. L. Rooney & C. W. Smith in C. W. Smith & R. A. Frederiksen Sorghum ii. iv. 331 These early introductions were probably race guinea and became known as guinea corn and chicken corn.

† chicken-eater n. Obsolete rare (a) the Mauritius kestrel, Falco punctatus, a falcon endemic to the forests of Mauritius; (b) U.S. the peregrine falcon, F. peregrinus. [In sense (a) apparently after French mangeur de poule.] Cf. chickenhawk n. 1.

ΚΠ

1775 J. Parish tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Voy. Island Mauritius 69 There is a specious of sparrow-hawk, called the Chicken-eater; it is also said to eat grasshoppers.

1870 P. Gillmore tr. G. L. Figuier Reptiles & Birds 578 The Peregrine Falcon..inhabits North America, where it is frequently called the Chicken-eater.

chicken grape n. now historical and rare any of several wild vines of North America, esp. Vitis vulpina and V. cordifolia; (also) the (typically small) fruit of such a vine.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular fruit-tree or -plant > [noun] > tree or plant producing edible berries > grape-vine > types of

wild vinea1382

malmsey1511

malvoisie1517

raisin1573

parsley vine1648

winter grape1670

morillon1691

summer grape1709

Pineau1763

tresseau1763

frost grape1771

muscadinec1785

sweet-water1786

chicken grape1807

scuppernong1811

Marsanne1824

Merlot1825

Cabernet1833

Isabella1835

mustang1846

Traminer1851

labrusca1854

Pinot1854

Catawba1857

Isabel1858

Trebbiano1860

aglianico1862

Canaiolo1862

verdelho1883

vinifera1888

Durif1897

Chardonnay1911

Chenin Blanc1913

Sylvaner1928

Syrah1928

Tokay wine1959

Mourvedre1967

1807 J. Scott Geogr. Descr. States Maryland & Delaware 112 Cecil county affords a great variety of grapes; as the black, red, and white fox grapes, chicken grapes, [etc.].

1830 M. Holley Texas Lett. v. 87 Almost every variety of grape is native in Texas from the large fox-grape down to what is called the chicken-grape.

1883 Cent. Mag. Aug. 487/2 The berries of the haw, the gum, and the chicken-grape.

1922 Landscape Archit. Apr. 155 If the pergola need make no appeal to your stomach, plant Chicken Grape which has the same medium foliage,—but the plentiful pea-sized berries stain everything below.

2006 R. H. Cichewicz & L. J. Clifford in A. Soumyanath Trad. Med. Mod. Times viii. 173 (table) Vitis vulpina L. (Vitaceae). Chicken grape, frost grape, grape, river-bank grape. Infusion of roots. Chippewa.

chicken lobster n. chiefly North American a small or young lobster, now typically one weighing around half a kilogram (or just over a pound).

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > seafood > [noun] > lobster

lobstera1000

sea crayfishc1440

long oyster1622

red crab1674

crevis fish1688

crayfish1748

Norway lobster1777

Cape lobster1793

spiny lobster1819

langouste1832

thorny lobster1833

écrevisse1854

chicken lobster1871

homarine1880

Dublin prawn1911

langostino1915

scampi1928

langoustine1946

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [noun] > subclass Malacostraca > division Thoracostraca > order Decapoda > suborder Macrura > member of genus Homarus (lobster)

lobstera1000

sea lion1601

locusta1664

sea-locust1672

fiery-tangs1813

chicken lobster1871

homarine1880

1871 ‘S. Tytler’ & J. L. Watson Songstresses Scotl. I. 154 A basket full of the cleverest, living, crawling creatures ever I saw—crabs, I believe, but yet when they are boiled they are like chicken lobsters.

1916 Washington Post 30 Apr. 12/2 A chicken lobster is any lobster under 10 inches long.

2014 Mass. Daily Collegian (Nexis) 2 Sept. 1 Howland added that one serving of clambake included one chicken lobster, two little neck clams, one steamer, half an ear of corn and two potatoes.

chicken pepper n. U.S. (now historical and rare) the kidneyleaf buttercup (or crowfoot) of North America, Ranunculus abortivus, which has very small flowers and seeds.

ΚΠ

1849 Ohio Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 2 101 Ranunculus Abortivus. Linn. Common name—Small flowered Crowfoot—Chicken pepper.

1876 C. E. Hobbs Bot. Hand-bk. 205 (table) Ranunculus abortivus, Chicken pepper.

1995 J. W. Herrick & D. R. Snow Iroquois Med. Bot. vi. 122/2 Ranunculus abortivus L. Small-flowered Crowfoot, Kidneyleaf Crowfoot, Chicken-pepper.

chicken snake n. U.S. any of several non-venomous, North American colubrid snakes, esp. rat snakes of the genus Pantherophis, which can feed on chickens and their eggs.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Colubridae > member of genus Elaphe (rat-snake)

chicken snake1698

Aesculapian1763

house snake1807

rat snake1818

pilot snake1854

fox-snake1857

1698 W. Salmon Ars Chirurgica iv. xvii. 859/1 Our Common Vulgar Snake is without danger, tho' it bites never so deeply: and the biting of the Chicken-snake, or long black Snake of Carolina, is also safe.

1791 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina (1792) 271 The chicken snake is a large, strong and swift serpent... They are apt to disturb hen roosts and prey upon chickens.

1868 F. Boyle Ride across Continent II. 285 The boba or chicken-snake..rarely attains a greater length than twelve feet.

1999 W. L. Heat Moon River Horse ix. 407 I challenged him to name his eleven serpents, and without hesitation he said, ‘Black snake.., bull snake, chicken snake, garter snake, [etc.]’.

chickenwort n. (also (Scottish (Shetland)) shickenwirt) now historical or regional common chickweed, Stellaria media.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Caryophyllaceae (chickweeds and allies) > [noun] > chickweeds and stitchworts

chicken meateOE

bird's-tonguea1300

stitchworta1300

chickenweedc1300

piglea1400

chickweed?a1425

craches1530

mouse-ear1578

all-bony1597

chickenwort1762

Stellaria1785

all bones1787

mouse-eared chickweed1789

cerastium1799

starwort1809

satin flower1836

adder's meat1853

thunder-flower1853

snap-jack1867

shirt button1880

1762 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. iv. vi. 427 The frequent ploughing of this soil makes it run much to chickenwort, and other creeping weeds.

1896 Dundee Courier & Argus 14 July 3/3 One of the worst of these enemies which has been encountered in heavy land this year is the common chicken-wort or weed.

1979 J. J. Graham Shetland Dict. Shickenwirt, chickweed.

2012 Times (Nexis) 27 Nov. 30 It [sc. chickweed] used to be fed to hens, and sometimes still is, and it has been called both chickenwort and cluckenweed.

C7. Other uses.See also chicken cholera at cholera n. 5.

chicken flu n. respiratory disease affecting chickens, (in later use) spec. avian influenza; (also) any influenza virus originating in chickens; disease caused in humans or other mammals by such a virus; cf. bird flu n. at bird n. Compounds 2a.

ΚΠ

1918 Moline (Illinois) Daily Disp. 26 Nov. 14/4 Hundreds of chickens in Reck Island county are now suffering with roup, or chicken flu.

1998 Daily Tel. 11 May 8/4 The latest flu strain—‘chicken flu’, or influenza virus A(H5N1)—was first identified in Hong Kong last summer.

2009 Winnipeg Free Press 23 May e3/3 Only two years ago the chicken flu hurt Asian tourism.

† chicken knot n. Obsolete rare each of the chalazae of a chicken's egg.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > egg > [noun] > part of

eggshellc1300

doupa1598

chicken knot1615

eye1653

oorhodeine1875

1615 G. Markham Eng. Hus-wife in Countrey Contentments ii. ii. 44 Cleanse awaie the little white Chickin knots, which sticke to the yelkes.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	chicken
释义	chickenn. Brit. /ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)n/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪkən/ Forms: Old English ciacen (rare), Old English ciccen (Northumbrian), Old English ciken (Mercian), Old English cycen (rare), Old English–early Middle English cicen, early Middle English chicn- (inflected form), Middle English checn- (inflected form), Middle English checon, Middle English checonn, Middle English chekn- (inflected form), Middle English chekon, Middle English chekyne, Middle English chekynge, Middle English chekynn- (inflected form), Middle English chicon, Middle English chicoun, Middle English chikken, Middle English chikkon, Middle English chikn- (inflected form), Middle English chikoun, Middle English chycon, Middle English chykn- (inflected form), Middle English chykne, Middle English chykonn- (inflected form), Middle English schycon, Middle English schykyn, Middle English–1500s cheken, Middle English–1500s chekin, Middle English–1500s chekyn, Middle English–1500s chikon, Middle English–1500s chikyn, Middle English–1500s chyken, Middle English–1500s chykin, Middle English–1500s chykon, Middle English–1500s chykyn, Middle English–1700s chiken, Middle English– chicken, 1500s checkyng, 1500s cheekyne, 1500s chekyng, 1500s cheykyn, 1500s chickinn- (inflected form), 1500s chikinn- (inflected form), 1500s chyking, 1500s–1600s chikin, 1500s–1700s (1800s– regional and nonstandard) chickin, 1600s chekkene, 1600s chickeen, 1500s–1600s (1800s regional) chicking; Scottish pre-1700 checkynn- (inflected form), pre-1700 cheekin, pre-1700 cheekkin, pre-1700 cheikenn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chekin, pre-1700 cheking, pre-1700 chekinn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chekkein, pre-1700 chekn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chekyn, pre-1700 chekynn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chiken, pre-1700 chikin, pre-1700 chikinn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chikkin, pre-1700 chikkyn, pre-1700 chikn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chikyn, pre-1700 chykinn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chykkynn- (inflected form), pre-1700 chykn- (inflected form), pre-1700 1700s– chicken, 1800s– chucken, 1800s– shicken (Shetland, in chickenwort n.). N.E.D. (1889) also records forms early Middle English chikene, late Middle English chykynge, late Middle English schecon, late Middle English schekyn. Etymology: Cognate with East Frisian (Wangeroog) sjuuken , Middle Dutch kiken , kiekin , kieken , kūken , kuyken (Dutch kuiken , (regional: northern) kieken ), Middle Low German kǖken , all in the sense ‘chick, younɡ bird, chicken’, of uncertain origin, probably ultimately imitative. Compare in similar senses German Küken (18th cent., a borrowing from Low German), and with different suffixes German Küchlein , Old Icelandic kjúklingr , Swedish kjukling , Danish kylling . Compare chick n.¹Ulterior etymology. The relationship between the various Germanic words is unclear. The ending probably shows a diminutive-forming suffix (see -en suffix¹). It has sometimes been suggested that the stem shows an ablaut variant (e -grade) of a putative Germanic base of cock n.¹; however, it is probably more likely that it is imitative of the bird's chirp (and hence connected with cock n.¹ and int. only to the extent that both words are probably of imitative origin). Development in Old English. In Old English a strong neuter (cīcen , plural cīcenu , (also) cīcen ). The phonological details of the word are not entirely clear, but it appears to reflect early West Saxon cīecen , showing i-mutation of Germanic iu . Late Mercian cīken* (with smoothing of the inherited diphthong) suggests that already in Old English the medial velar was not palatalized and assibilated (as would be expected before original ī of the diminutive suffix). The reason for this has not been adequately explained; it is perhaps the result of dissimilation from the regularly palatalized and assibilated initial consonant. Development of the plural. Uninflected plurals are occasionally attested in early Middle English (compare Old English nominative and accusative plural forms cīcen , cīcenu ). Compare also the following later examples of chicken as a plural, although it can be difficult to determine in individual cases whether they are intended as a plural of chicken or chick (see discussion in etymology at chick n.¹):c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 579/39 Educamen, a teme of checonn.1563 L. Humphrey Nobles or of Nobilitye i. sig. e.iii Cities in times paste (as we nowe) wonted to stampe in their coyne certaine Images. They of Delos or Athenes, an oxe. Moreouer the Athenians maydes, or night owles. The Corinthians chicken, The Peleponnesians snayles.1684 T. Creech tr. Theocritus Idylliums xiv. 75 I made them welcome, got the best I cou'd, A sucking Pig, two Chicken, Country food.1788 J. Trusler Habitable World Described III. 227 A great number of chicken, and other poultry, are killed by convulsive disorders.1933 Nottingham Evening Post 29 Dec. 1/6 A flock of chicken, scared by the express, flew wildly from the track.The sporadic late survival of chicken as a plural may partly reflect analogy with the plurals of other animal names (as e.g. sheep n. with unchanged plural or ox n. with -en plural: oxen ); its continued use in set phrases and proverbs is probably also partly motivated by rhyme (compare e.g. children and chicken should always be picking at Phrases 1a). I. A domestic fowl, and related senses. 1. a. A domesticated gallinaceous bird ( Gallus gallus domesticus) used as a source of eggs and meat, typically having a fairly large, stout body, a comb and wattles on the head, and large feet for foraging on the ground. In early use spec.: a young individual of this bird; = chick n.¹ 4 (now rare).Chickens were domesticated chiefly from the red junglefowl, G. gallus, at least five thousand years ago, probably originally in South Asia. They are now kept throughout the world in numerous breeds which vary in plumage, size, and shape.For occasional uses with unchanged plural see etymological note. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) chickenOE chicka1398 fowla1586 biddya1616 chuck1615 pull-fowla1688 chucky1724 dunghill1753 dunghill fowl1796 jungle-fowl1824 chook1888 gump1914 the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) > young or chicken chickenOE chicka1398 poulta1425 chicken birdc1450 peepera1586 peepling1594 game chicken1674 peep1688 spring chicken1765 clucker1779 chickabiddy1785 chicklet1836 chickie1851 wing-chick1885 pee-pee1890 OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xxiii. 37 Swa seo henn hyre cicenu [OE Lindisf. Gospels cicceno, OE Rushw. Gospels ciken; L. pullos] under hyre fyþeru gegaderað. a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Tobit viii. 11 Aboute chykenys crowing [L. circa pullorum cantum]. 1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection i. sig. Dv^v He..cherissheth vs, as the egle her byrdes: the broode henne her cheykyns. a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 249 To guard the Chicken from a hungry Kyte. View more context for this quotation 1741 Philos. Trans. 1737–8 (Royal Soc.) 40 445 Two Members of the Academy have been employed to make the Experiments relating to the Cure of the Bite of Vipers, and they have accordingly made some upon Dogs, Cats, Pigeons, Chickens, Ducks and Turkeys. 1848 Sketches Rural Affairs 236 A hen and her chickens are sometimes carried..to the turnip-field, in a sort of basket, called a brood-basket. 1887 Scribner's Mag. May 622/1 The farm people had all retired with the chickens long before. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 24 Jan. 3/1 It is a disastrous betrayal of middle-class origin to speak of a ‘chicken’ as a ‘fowl’. Whatever the age of the bird, the word must always be chicken. 1976 Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) 6 July 11 South Africa has produced its very own, indigenous kind of fowl..called..the Potchefstroom koekoek... It produces chickens which can be readily identified as boys or girls immediately they hatch out. 2010 Guardian 10 July (Guide Suppl.) 86/2 Jimmy Doherty learns about the origins, social behaviour and intelligence of chickens. †b. A young bird other than that of the domestic fowl; a nestling; = chick n.¹ 5. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > young bird > [noun] birdOE chicka1398 chickena1398 brancher?a1400 pulla1500 birdling1611 puler1611 pullus1653 squeaker1654 birdeen1829 chicklet1836 baby bird1841 chirpling1888 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. xii. xxxii. 638 Þe pocok..haþ chikenes in þe ende of þre ȝere. 1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 167^v The [Turkey's] Chickines being hatched vnder a Henne, may be kept with the Hennes Chickins. 1651 W. G. tr. J. Cowell Inst. Lawes Eng. 58 The Chickins or young ones of such Birds as build in my Trees. 1780 W. Cowper Fable 3 A raven..on her wicker-work high mounted Her chickens prematurely counted. 1870 tr. C. G. Leroy Intelligence & Perfectibility Animals v. 70 The hen pheasant is much less careful to call her chickens together and keep them near her. 2. A chicken or its flesh used as food. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > fowls > [noun] > chicken chicken1381 March chick1600 poulet1764 spring chicken1765 chicken meat1826 murgi1863 broiler1876 petit poussin1895 poussin1900 fryer1923 murgh1976 1381 Diuersa Servicia in C. B. Hieatt & S. Butler Curye on Inglysch (1985) 64 Nym kedys or chekenys & hew hem in morsellys. c1405 (c1387–95) G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 382 To boille the chiknes [c1415 Corpus Oxf. chikenes, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 chekenys] with the Marybones. 1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. ii. iii. f. xvi^v A brothe of stamped and strayned almandes, in the brothe of a chicken wyth a lytle suggre. 1654 J. Cooper Art of Cookery 16 Dish the Chickens and pour this sauce on them, laying on the chickens boyled Aspuragus, hard Lettuce scalded, a little handful of scalded Gooseberries. 1760 T. Warton Idler 26 Jan. 25 The Company may..refresh themselves with cold Tongue, Chicken, and French Rolls. 1881 Judy 30 Mar. 155/1 Sloper had roast chicken for dinner. 1901 Mass. Ploughman 28 Sept. 6/3 Put the largest slice of chicken in the centre of the dish. 2002 Times 13 July 45/1 It put me off eating chicken for the next 20 years. 3. Usually with distinguishing word. Any of various other birds that resemble chickens in some way, esp. (in North America) grouse of the genera Tympanuchus and Centrocercus.meadow chicken, prairie chicken, sage chicken, etc.: see the first element.See also Mother Carey's chicken n. at Mother Carey n. 1. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Tetraonidae (grouse) > [noun] > genus Tympanuchus > tympanuchus cupido (prairie-chicken) pheasant1625 mountain cock1791 prairie fowl1804 prairie hen1804 prairie cock1805 pinnated grouse1811 chicken1812 prairie chicken1832 prairie grouse1851 the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Tetraonidae (grouse) > [noun] > genus Tympanuchus > tympanuchus phasianellus (pintail) pheasant grouse1772 chicken1812 pintail1879 1812 J. C. Luttig Jrnl. Exped. Upper Missouri 14 Oct. (1920) 86 4 Men went out to hunt..got this Day 21 Chickens. 1832 Amer. Turf Reg. & Sporting Mag. Aug. 589 The French Creoles call them ‘des Phesants’, the pheasants, or ‘poule de prairie’, ‘prairie chicken’, by which latter name, and ‘prairie hen’, all the people of Illinois and Missouri call them. 1888 G. Trumbull Names & Portraits Birds 132 At East Haddam, Conn., it [sc. Porzana carolina] is the Meadow Chicken. 1902 O. Wister Virginian iv. 53 We..shot some young sage chickens, which were good at supper, roasted at our camp-fire. 1959 Calgary (Alberta) Herald 1 Aug. 19/1 He has seen a chicken isolated from others by sagebrush dancing in perfect harmony. 2002 National Geographic Mar. 55 (caption) Prairie-chickens. The Attwater's..is closely related to other grouse with the ‘prairie-chicken’ moniker. II. A person likened to a chicken. 4. a. A child. Frequently in figurative contexts with reference to sense 1a. Cf. chick n.¹ 1. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > child > [noun] wenchelc890 childeOE littleOE littlingOE hired-childc1275 smalla1300 brolla1325 innocentc1325 chickc1330 congeonc1330 impc1380 faunt1382 young onec1384 scionc1390 weea1400 birdc1405 chickenc1440 enfaunta1475 small boyc1475 whelp1483 burden1490 little one1509 brat?a1513 younkerkin1528 kitling1541 urchin1556 loneling1579 breed1586 budling1587 pledge?1587 ragazzo1591 simplicity1592 bantling1593 tadpole1594 two-year-old1594 bratcheta1600 lambkin1600 younker1601 dandling1611 buda1616 eyas-musketa1616 dovelinga1618 whelplinga1618 puppet1623 butter printa1625 chit1625 piggy1625 ninnyc1626 youngster1633 fairya1635 lap-child1655 chitterling1675 squeaker1676 cherub1680 kid1690 wean1692 kinchin1699 getlingc1700 totum17.. charity-child1723 small girl1734 poult1739 elfin1748 piggy-wiggy1766 piccaninny1774 suck-thumb18.. teeny1802 olive1803 sprout1813 stumpie1820 sexennarian1821 totty1822 toddle1825 toddles1828 poppet1830 brancher1833 toad1836 toddler1837 ankle-biter1840 yarkera1842 twopenny1844 weeny1844 tottykins1849 toddlekins1852 brattock1858 nipper1859 sprat1860 ninepins1862 angelet1868 tenas man1870 tad1877 tacker1885 chavvy1886 joey1887 toddleskin1890 thumb-sucker1891 littlie1893 peewee1894 tyke1894 che-ild1896 kiddo1896 mother's bairn1896 childling1903 kipper1905 pick1905 small1907 God forbid1909 preadolescent1909 subadolescent1914 toto1914 snookums1919 tweenie1919 problem child1920 squirt1924 trottie1924 tiddler1927 subteen1929 perisher1935 poopsie1937 pre-schooler1937 pre-teen1938 pre-teener1940 juvie1941 sprog1944 pikkie1945 subteenager1947 pre-teenager1948 pint-size1954 saucepan lid1960 rug rat1964 smallie1984 bosom-child- c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 4181 (MED) The churles chekyne hade chaungyde his armes. 1603 W. Muggins Londons Mourning Garment sig. C2 From me quite, my youngest Chicken swept; Then to the other, he full nimbly leapt. a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iv. iii. 219. All my pretty Chickens, and their Damme At one fell swoope? 1642 T. Taylor God's Judgem. ii. vi. 82 A chicken of the same broode was Messalina. 1895 ‘Pansy’ Making Fate iii. 34 Dear me, child! I am not used to having my youngest chicken go out from the nest. 2012 @Leprakans 10 Jan. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) I just told the Chickens they could not have lunch until they cleaned up the playroom. Genius or blackmail? b. As a term of endearment or affectionate form of address, esp. for a woman or child. Also formerly: †a loved one, esp. a spouse (obsolete). Cf. chick n.¹ 2. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a child chickc1330 dillydowna1500 dilling1584 dotey1663 cherub1680 dilli-darling1693 dilli-minion1693 chickabiddy?1775 chicken1809 dote1809 chick-a-diddle1826 sock-lamb1838 sock1840 childie1848 chickadee1860 doy1862 diddums1893 pumpkin1900 poopsie1937 bubele1959 1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments sig. g.i^v/1 Who then tendering the teares of his deare chyckin, directed to him letters again by the same messenger. 1619 Two Wise Men & All Rest Fooles vii. ii. 99 Heere is a token for thee my chicken. 1677 T. D'Urfey Fond Husband ii. ii. 15 I'll be very sharp upon her; I'll pinch her severely faith, for all she's my Chicken. 1682 T. Shadwell Lancashire-witches ii. 21 Pray mind my Chicken, she's the best bred Woman in the Country! 1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas IV. x. x. 136 Well! my chicken, said he..are you satisfied? 1956 E. Hahn Francie comes Home iii. 26 Pop hadn't seemed to be listening to the women's chatter, but now he said, ‘Don't worry, chicken; you're all right.’ 2016 @alicegracejazz 23 Feb. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) This pretty little lady..is on her way to visit me! Can't wait to see you chicken. 5. A stupid or foolish person; a fool. Cf. goose n. 1f. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > foolish person, fool > fool, simpleton > [noun] boinarda1300 daffc1325 goky1377 nicea1393 unwiseman1400 totc1425 alphinc1440 dawc1500 hoddypeak1500 dawpatea1529 hoddypolla1529 noddy1534 kimec1535 coxcomb1542 sheep1542 sheep's head1542 goose1547 dawcock1556 nodgecock1566 peak-goosea1568 hottie tottie?c1570 Tom Towly1582 wittol1588 goose-cap1589 nodgecomb1592 ninny1593 chicken1600 fopdoodle16.. hoddy-noddy1600 hoddy-doddy1601 peagoose1606 fopster1607 nazold1607 nupson1607 wigeon1607 fondrel1613 simpleton1639 pigwidgeon1640 simpletonian1652 Tony1654 nizy1673 Simple Simon?1673 Tom Farthing1674 totty-head1680 cockcomb1684 cod1699 nikin1699 sap-pate1699 simpkin1699 mackninnya1706 gilly-gaupus?1719 noodle1720 sapskull1735 gobbin?1746 Judy1781 zanya1784 spoony1795 sap-head1798 spoon1799 gomerel1814 sap1815 neddy1818 milestone1819 sunket1823 sunketa1825 gawp1825 gawpy1825 gawpus1826 Tomnoddy1826 Sammy1828 tammie norie1828 Tommy1828 gom1834 noodlehead1835 nowmun1854 gum-sucker1855 flat-head1862 peggy1869 noodledum1883 jay1884 toot1888 peanut head1891 simp1903 sappyhead1922 Arkie1927 putz1928 steamer1932 jerk-off1939 drongo1942 galah1945 Charley1946 nong-nong1959 mouth-breather1979 twonk1981 the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > person of weak intellect > [noun] > simpleton innocentc1386 greenhead1576 gonyc1580 ninnyhammer1592 chicken1600 loach1605 simplician1605 hichcock1607 smelt1607 foppasty1611 dovea1616 goslinga1616 funge1621 simplicity1633 gewgaw1634 squab1640 simpletonian1652 ninny-whoop1653 softhead1654 foppotee1663 greenhorn1672 sumph1682 sawney1699 sillyton1708 gaby?1746 gobbin?1746 green goose1768 nin-a-kin1787 Jacob1811 green1824 sillikin1832 greeny1834 softhorn1836 sucker1838 softie1850 dope1851 soft1854 verigreen1854 peanut1864 daftie1872 josser1886 naïf1891 yapc1894 barm-stick1924 knobhead1931 sook1933 nig-nog1953 sawn1953 pronk1959 stiffy1965 1600 W. Kemp Nine Daies Wonder sig. D4 All his anger turned to laughter: swearing it did him good to haue ill words of a hoddy doddy, a habber de hoy, a chicken, a squib, a squall. 1794 W. Godwin Caleb Williams III. vi. 112 You are not such a chicken as to suppose, if so be as you are innocent, that that will make your game altogether sure. 1859 N.Y. Herald 30 Aug. (Morning ed.) 4/4 He is not such a chicken as to have ever given a copy of that letter without the certain knowledge and deliberate intention that it should appear in the New York papers. 1921 R. M. Ayres Winds of World i. v. 54 Why you silly chicken—you ought to be simply wild with delight! 2016 @josienotjodie 27 Nov. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) ‘When you go out next week don't get too drunk just bc you can’. Maria you silly chicken, it'll be a miracle if me and liver make it home. 6. A faint-hearted person; a coward.In later use frequently with reference or allusion to the game of ‘chicken’; cf. sense 13 and chicken adj. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [noun] > coward(s) coward?a1289 hen-hearta1450 staniel?a1500 pigeon?1571 cow1581 quake-breech1584 cow-baby1594 custard1598 chicken heart1602 nidget1605 hen?1613 faintling1614 white-liver1614 chickena1616 quake-buttocka1627 skitterbrooka1652 dunghill1761 cow-heart1768 shy-cock1768 fugie1777 slag1788 man of chaff1799 fainter1826 possum1833 cowardy, cowardy, custard1836 sheep1840 white feather1857 funk1859 funkstick1860 lily-liver1860 faint-heart1870 willy boy1895 blert1905 squib1908 fraid cat (also fraidy cat)c1910–23 manso1912 feartie1923 yellowbelly1927 chicken liver1930 boneless wonder1931 scaredy-cat1933 sook1933 pantywaist1935 punk1939 ringtail1941 chickenshit1945 candy-ass1953 pansy-ass1963 unbrave1981 bottler1994 a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) v. v. 42 Forthwith they flye Chickens, the way which they stopt Eagles. View more context for this quotation 1633 T. Stafford Pacata Hibernia i. xix. 111 Not finding the Defendants to be Chikins, to be afraid..of every cloud or kite. 1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. ii. v. 192 I am not afraid of dying with a Blow or two neither; I am not such a Chicken as that. 1835 C. Dickens in Bell's Life in London 29 Nov. Hold up your head, you chicken. 1885 Leicester Chron. & Leics. Mercury 29 Aug. (Suppl.) 4/2 ‘I shan't do the job!’ said Charlie. ‘No, I didn't think you would; you're too much of a chicken.’ 1990 K. William Enid's Story v. 58 I want to go to that new horror movie, but I'm such a chicken. I don't know if I could really go through with it. 2011 @MattyA_Taylor 15 June in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Wisdom teeth coming out tomorrow. I'm a massive chicken when it comes to anything medical..can't sleep! 2015 Sc. Express (Nexis) 5 Apr. 58 Vin Diesel's Dom and Jason Statham's scowling villain, Deckard Shaw, have a habit of racing into each other head-on, both too macho (or more likely stupid) to be the ‘chicken’ who veers away. 7. A young or inexperienced person. Now chiefly in to be no chicken and variants: to be no longer young. Cf. to be no spring chicken at spring chicken n. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > young person > [noun] > young and inexperienced person colta1225 chicken1691 hopeful1720 pup1887 the world > people > person > adult > be adult [verb (intransitive)] to be no chicken1727 to be no spring chicken1857 1691 J. Wilson Belphegor ii. iii. 20 Thou'rt a meer Chicken, Girl. 1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 216. ⁋2 You ought to consider you are now past a Chicken; this Humour, which was well enough in a Girl, is insufferable in one of your Motherly Character. 1727 J. Swift Stella's Birth-day: 1720 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. iii. 152 Pursue your Trade of Scandal-picking, Your Hints, that Stella is no Chicken. 1809 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 25 Mar. 421 An infant at law? A mere chicken? 1954 Daily Mail 28 Apr. 4/4 He is 66 years old, no chicken, and not particularly robust. 2019 @VPerratore 20 Mar. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Shouldn't she consider her age and present state of health? She's no chicken! 8. slang (chiefly U.S.). A prostitute (now rare); a promiscuous woman. In later use also: a woman regarded as a sexual object (cf. chick n.¹ 3). ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute meretrixOE whoreOE soiled dovea1250 common womanc1330 putec1384 bordel womanc1405 putaina1425 brothelc1450 harlot?a1475 public womanc1510 naughty pack?1529 draba1533 cat1535 strange woman1535 stew1552 causey-paikera1555 putanie?1566 drivelling1570 twigger1573 punka1575 hackney1579 customer1583 commodity1591 streetwalker1591 traffic1591 trug1591 hackster1592 polecat1593 stale1593 mermaid1595 medlar1597 occupant1598 Paphian1598 Winchester goose1598 pagan1600 hell-moth1602 aunt1604 moll1604 prostitution1605 community1606 miss1606 night-worm1606 bat1607 croshabell1607 prostitute1607 pug1607 venturer1607 nag1608 curtal1611 jumbler1611 land-frigate1611 walk-street1611 doll-common1612 turn-up1612 barber's chaira1616 commonera1616 public commonera1616 trader1615 venturea1616 stewpot1616 tweak1617 carry-knave1623 prostibule1623 fling-dusta1625 mar-taila1625 night-shadea1625 waistcoateera1625 night trader1630 coolera1632 meretrician1631 painted ladya1637 treadle1638 buttock1641 night-walker1648 mob?1650 lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651 lady of pleasure1652 trugmullion1654 fallen woman1659 girlc1662 high-flyer1663 fireship1665 quaedama1670 small girl1671 visor-mask1672 vizard-mask1672 bulker1673 marmalade-madam1674 town miss1675 town woman1675 lady of the night1677 mawks1677 fling-stink1679 Whetstone whore1684 man-leech1687 nocturnal1693 hack1699 strum1699 fille de joie1705 market-dame1706 screw1725 girl of (the) town1733 Cytherean1751 street girl1764 monnisher1765 lady of easy virtue1766 woman (also lady) of the town1766 kennel-nymph1771 chicken1782 stargazer1785 loose fish1809 receiver general1811 Cyprian1819 mollya1822 dolly-mop1834 hooker1845 charver1846 tail1846 horse-breaker1861 professional1862 flagger1865 cocodette1867 cocotte1867 queen's woman1871 common prostitute1875 joro1884 geisha1887 horizontal1888 flossy1893 moth1896 girl of the pavement1900 pross1902 prossie1902 pusher1902 split-arse mechanic1903 broad1914 shawl1922 bum1923 quiff1923 hustler1924 lady of the evening1924 prostie1926 working girl1928 prostisciutto1930 maggie1932 brass1934 brass nail1934 mud kicker1934 scupper1935 model1936 poule de luxe1937 pro1937 chromo1941 Tom1941 pan-pan1949 twopenny upright1958 scrubber1959 slack1959 yum-yum girl1960 Suzie Wong1962 mattress1964 jamette1965 ho1966 sex worker1971 pavement princess1976 parlour girl1979 crack whore1990 society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > [noun] > sexual indulgence > unchaste behaviour of woman > unchaste or loose woman queanOE whorec1175 malkinc1275 wenchelc1300 ribalda1350 strumpeta1350 wench1362 filtha1375 parnelc1390 sinner14.. callet1415 slut?c1425 tickle-tailc1430 harlot?a1475 mignote1489 kittock?a1500 mulea1513 trulla1516 trully?1515 danta1529 miswoman1528 stewed whore1532 Tib1533 unchaghe1534 flag1535 Katy1535 jillet1541 yaud1545 housewife1546 trinkletc1550 whippet1550 Canace1551 filthy1553 Jezebel1558 kittyc1560 loonc1560 laced mutton1563 nymph1563 limmer1566 tomboy1566 Marian1567 mort1567 cockatrice1568 franion1571 blowze1573 rannell1573 rig1575 Kita1577 poplet1577 light-skirts1578 pucelle1578 harlotry1584 light o' lovea1586 driggle-draggle1588 wagtail1592 tub-tail1595 flirt-gill1597 minx1598 hilding1599 short-heels1599 bona-roba1600 flirt1600 Hiren1600 light-heels1602 roba1602 baggage1603 cousin1604 fricatrice1607 rumbelow1611 amorosa1615 jaya1616 open-taila1618 succubus1622 snaphancea1625 flap1631 buttered bun1638 puffkin1639 vizard1652 fallen woman1659 tomrigg1662 cunt1663 quaedama1670 jilt1672 crack1677 grass-girl1691 sporting girl1694 sportswoman1705 mobbed hood1707 brim1736 trollop1742 trub1746 demi-rep1749 gillyflower1757 lady of easy virtue1766 mot1773 chicken1782 gammerstang1788 buer1807 scarlet woman1816 blowen1819 fie-fie1820 shickster?1834 streel1842 charver1846 trolly1854 bad girl1855 amateur1862 anonyma1862 demi-virgin1864 pickup1871 chippy1885 wish-wife1886 tart1887 tartleta1890 flossy1893 fly girl1893 demi-mondaine1894 floozy1899 slattern1899 scrub1900 demi-vierge1908 cake1909 coozie1912 muff1914 tarty1918 yes-girl1920 radge1923 bike1945 puta1948 messer1951 cooze1955 jamette1965 skeezer1986 slutbag1987 chickenhead1988 ho1988 1782 J. Caske Tricipitina 13 A little excuse may be made for them that shew their insolence to the keeper of a brothel and his crew, for procuring sometimes a rot—— or stale fowl, instead of a tender young chicken. 1788 New Hampsh. Spy 10 June 54 Visiting Bagnio's, those seats of despair, Where chickens will call you ‘my duck and my dear’, In hopes that your purse may fall to their share. 1860 G. D. Prentice Prenticeana 97 Call a lady ‘a chicken’, and ten to one she is angry. Tell her she is ‘no chicken’, and twenty to one she is still angrier. 1913 G. J. Kneeland Commercialized Prostitution i. 13 I know where there are a lot of chickens. 1972 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight 149 Another teacher, a curvy little chicken in a hot pink mini. 2006 ‘LL Cool J’ et al. Preserve the Sexy (transcribed from song, feat. ‘Teairra Marí’) in Todd Smith Too many chickens gettin laid and watch they reputations fade. 9. a. U.S. Navy slang. A ship's boy, esp. one under the protection or care of a more experienced sailor. Now rare. ΚΠ 1840 Special Court Martial Daniel Lupenny in Rec. Proc. Gen. Courts Martial & Courts of Inq. U.S. Navy Dept. XXXIX. Case No. 761 257 Was you a chicken of Daniel Lupenny on board the Marion? 1848 Narr. Late Exped. to Dead Sea 4 Dec. (1849) xlvii. 331 The specimens from Lot's Wife Monument are being broken and rebroken, so that ‘Jack and his chicken’ may each have a piece. 1879 J. McElroy Andersonville xlvii. 361 He was brought into the Hospital, and the old fellow whose ‘chicken’ he was, was allowed to accompany and nurse him. 1896 A. Sinclair Two Years on Alabama (ed. 3) vii. 121 He is engaged in embroidering, with silks of many colors, the collar of a frock for his ‘chicken’. 1932 Leatherneck July 21/3 Richard Schobel, the chicken of the ship, has what the women go wild about, mainly, youth, beauty and innocence. b. U.S. Military slang. A young or new recruit. Now rare. ΚΠ 1887 J. D. Billings Hardtack & Coffee xviii. 333 There was no man in my company—from old Graylocks, of nearly sixty, down to the callow ‘chicken’ of seventeen—but what felt qualified to fill such a bill. 1950 National Geographic Mag. Nov. 661/1 In that whole exhausting ten weeks, no ‘chicken’—as they call the recruits—dares even so much as speak. 1965 C. Koch Casual Company i. i. 7 I've got retreads, and chickens bloated with fever, but they turn to at reveille. 10. slang (originally and chiefly U.S.). A young homosexual man, esp. a young male prostitute. Also: a boy or young man regarded as a sexual object by another (typically older) man (cf. chickenhawk n. 2). ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > homosexuality > [noun] > a homosexual person > male > boy or youth bardash1550 catamite?1552 Ganymede1558 ingle1592 ningle1602 Ganymedean1603 pathic1605 prostitute1654 love-boy1655 punk1698 chicken1914 tart1935 bumboy1937 mo1968 1914 Sacramento (Calif.) Bee 23 Nov. 6/2 They demand young boys—‘chickens’, they call them—and they will stoop to almost anything to satisfy their desire in this regard. 1945 T. Williams Let. 2 Mar. in Lett. to Donald Windham (1977) 164 I think it was because I was getting more chickens than he was. I have three 17 year old ones..on the string and he seems to resent it. 1977 Time 15 Aug. 31/1 Grandfatherly ‘chicken hawks’, men in their 50s and 60s, haggle with ‘chickens’, teen-age boy hustlers, through the windows of Cadillacs. 2002 Chicken-chasing at ‘Gay Proms’ in alt.politics.homosexuality (Usenet newsgroup) 14 Aug. All those ‘high school’ gay men..can go to a prom and hit on Raw Chickens as young as 14! III. Other uses. 11. A game of hazard played for low stakes; = chicken hazard n. Cf. hazard n. 1. Now rare.Largely superseded by sense 13. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > games of chance > dice-playing > [noun] > other dice games rafflec1405 passagec1425 treygobet1426 mumchance1528 trey-trip1564 lots?1577 novum?1577 fox-mine-host1622 in and in1630 merry main1664 snake1688 pass-dice1753 chicken hazard1781 Shaking in the Shallow1795 sequin hazard1825 chuck-a-luck1836 Newmarket1837 chicken1849 poker dice1870 under and over1890 sweat1894 crown and anchor1902 Murrumbidgee1917 beetle1936 liar dice1946 Yahtzee1957 1849 Bentley's Misc. Mar. 283 We had a merry time of it all the way to town! slanging the fellows in the neighbouring den playing ‘chicken’,—literally a ‘hell in harness’. 1865 Daily Tel. 5 Dec. 3/4 ‘Don't go; let's have a little chicken’... A ‘little chicken’ does not mean a wing and a little weak white wine and water, but the rattling of certain ivory cubes in a little leather box. 1866 Baily's Monthly Mag. June 306 ‘How did you sleep, Jem?’ asked our host of the party. ‘Never closed my eyes,’ said Jem—(it was true, for he had played ‘Chicken’ till 7.45)—‘those confounded nightingales made such a row!’ 1932 Thomasville (Georgia) Times-Enterprise 23 June 3/1 He does not mind staying out until all hours playing chicken. 12. Military slang (chiefly U.S.). An eagle emblem, spec. the insignia of the rank of colonel. Cf. chicken colonel n. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military organization > insignia > [noun] > other specific marks, etc. gorget1786 scale1846 eagle1851 chicken1918 1918 Sydney Stock & Station Jrnl. 20 Dec. 2/5 There was a [German] General in a shining hilmet [sic] with a gold chicken on the top of it. 1920 H. H. Bissell Hist. Sixty-third U.S. Infantry, 1917–19 254 You ain't no officer, you ain't got no chicken on your shoulders. 1956 G. Rock Hist. Amer. Field Service iv. 127 The new Company's cars were painted with an insignia..chosen after a Company-wide competition—an eagle with a top hat against a red cross... The chickens had been painted on all the cars. 1982 W. E. B. Griffin Captains viii. 195 Jiggs's job was in the rear on the radio and the telephone, shaking his brand-new silver chicken in people's faces. 2003 M. Jenkins Last Ridge xv. 247 When he spotted the ‘chicken’ on his shoulder and a 10th Mountain patch, Hames walked over and saluted. 13. Chiefly in to play chicken. a. A game in which the first person to lose his or her nerve and withdraw from an increasingly dangerous situation is the loser. Also in extended use with reference to any risky or dangerous situation. Cf. chicken adj.The game is typically played by driving cars towards each other at speed or by standing in front of fast-moving vehicles. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > other specific games > [noun] > others sitisota1400 papsea1450 half-bowl1477 pluck at the crow1523 white and black1555 running game1581 blow-pointa1586 hot cocklesa1586 one penny1585 cockelty bread1595 pouch1600 venter-point1600 hinch-pinch1603 hardhead1606 poor and rich1621 rowland-hoe1622 hubbub1634 handicap?a1653 owl1653 ostomachy1656 prelledsa1660 quarter-spellsa1660 yert-point1659 bob-her1702 score1710 parson has lost his cloak1712 drop (also throw) (the) handkerchief1754 French Fox1759 goal1765 warpling o' the green1768 start1788 kiss-in-the-ring1801 steal-clothes1809 steal-coat1816 petits paquets1821 bocce1828 graces1831 Jack-in-the-box1836 hot hand1849 sparrow-mumbling1852 Aunt Sally1858 gossip1880 Tambaroora1882 spoof1884 fishpond1892 nim1901 diabolo1906 Kim's game1908 beaver1910 treasure-hunt1913 roll-down1915 rock scissors paper1927 scissors cut paper1927 scissors game1927 the dozens1928 toad in the hole1930 game1932 scissors paper stone1932 Roshambo1936 Marco Polo1938 scavenger hunt1940 skish1940 rock paper scissors1947 to play chicken1949 sounding1962 joning1970 arcade game1978 society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > other specific games > [verb (intransitive)] > other specific games to give a woman a green gowna1586 to play the dozens1928 to play chicken1949 1949 Collier's 28 May 76/4 Compared to Russian roulette,..‘chicken’ has the advantage in that if you win, you take your friends with you. 1949 Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gaz. 12 Nov. 16/7 A recent automobile accident which resulted in death to occupants of the cars was the result of playing ‘chicken’. 1962 Times 18 May 13/3 The spectacle of jay walkers playing chicken against the lights may be seen every day. 2013 Times & Transcript (New Brunswick) (Nexis) 2 July d4 This isn't just building on a flood plain, which is inadvisable enough, it's playing chicken with nature. 2018 Kent Messenger (Nexis) 18 Oct. Those who play chicken in the street or on the train tracks. I'm not sure your family will see the funny side of it should you slip. b. figurative with reference to a situation or confrontation in which those on one side of an issue refuse to negotiate, hoping that the opposition will back down first. ΚΠ 1951 Coe Cosmos (Coe Coll., Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 25 Oct. (Homecoming ed.) 4/1 World politics is no place to play ‘chicken’. 1986 Economist 8 Feb. 13/1 Mr Reagan is not budging, determined to play chicken on the deficit for a bit longer. 2009 Financial Times 26 May 11/1 [Mr Piëch, who] is one of the company's largest shareholders, pushes through decisions and plays chicken with anyone who crosses his path. 2019 Medicine Hat (Alberta) News (Nexis) 3 Dec. (Final ed.) b4 Our illustrious and gaudily-socked prime minister is playing chicken with the U.S. 14. Any of several popular dances in which participants imitate bird movements in a synchronized routine, typically performed to a lively tune or song; = chicken dance n. 1. Chiefly in to do the chicken. Cf. funky chicken n. at funky adj.¹ Compounds. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > lively dances > [noun] > others hove-dance1390 tricotee1659 saltarello1724 écossaise1806 fling1806 carmagnole1827 gallopade1831 gallopading1833 polka1837 redowa1843 chicken dance1845 polking1845 schottische1849 Highland or Balmoral Schottische1882 kinkajou1927 knees up, Mother Brown1939 chicken1957 1957 B. Emerson (title of song) Do the chicken. 1978 Washington Post 10 Oct. (Style section) b9/5 We've had a series of dances whose names are almost invariably indicators of their strangeness—the Jitterbug..superseded by The Bop, The Chicken (and The Funky Chicken), The Philly Dog [etc.]. 1992 Telegram & Gaz. (Worcester, Mass.) 19 Aug. b4 Kampe went on to tell the guests at the dinner-dance to ‘get out and get your body moving and do the chicken’, which is just what they did. 2012 D. Moss Thirteen Ways looking at Man viii. 115 I'd rock around my room, doing the chicken, shaking my head, screaming my lungs out. Phrases P1. Proverbs and proverbial phrases. a. children and chicken should always be picking (also †eating) and variants: children and chickens should eat as much food as they like in order to grow rapidly. Now rare and regional. ΚΠ 1562 T. Tusser Hundreth Good Poyntes Husbandry (rev. ed.) f. 38 Yong children & chickens would euer be eating, good seruauntes looke duely for gentle entreating. 1584 T. Cogan Hauen of Health ccxiii. 195 Wherfore in youth especially while we are in growing, we should feede more largely, and nature it selfe doth as it appeareth in children. For (as it is saide) Children and chicken, would be alwaies picking. 1742 J. Hurlock Pract. Treat. Dentition viii. 169 Those, who fondly attached to that weak, but prevailing Maxim.., viz. Children, like Chicken, are always a picking; make it a general Rule of Conduct..in giving whatever the Stomach seems to bear, and that as often as it can be received. 1929 Folk-lore 40 123 Children should always be allowed the food they want. ‘Children and chicken, Should always be picken.’ 2018 @adoolan34 1 Apr. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) An elderly friend has a saying; ‘Children and chickens are always pickin’! b. don't count your chickens (before they are hatched) and variants: don't be too confident in anticipating success or good fortune before it is certain. ΚΠ ?1570 T. Howell Newe Sonets sig. C.ij Counte not thy Chickens that vnhatched be, Waye wordes as winde, till thou finde certaintee. 1577 W. Fulke Two Treat. against Papistes ii. ii. vii. 273 But that you loue to tell your chickens before they be hatched, you neede not greatly to boast of your winnings. 1772 J. Thompson Double Discov. in Poems ii. iii. 232 We have only been counting our chickens, before they were hatch'd. 1871 Quiver 11 Mar. 366/2 ‘Mother, five shillings a week is a regular fortune! I'll be able to give you a fine warm shawl at Christmas’... ‘Don't reckon your chickens before they are hatched’, said Mrs. Wilson. 2014 @jhbroch 11 May in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Don't want to count my chickens but it seems I've won May's fantasy football! c. curses, like chickens, come home to roost and variants: an unkind action will recoil unfavourably on the originator. Also allusively in the chickens come home to roost. Cf. to come home to roost at roost n.¹ Phrases 1d.Compare the following quotation, expressing a similar sentiment: c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Parson's Tale (Ellesmere) (1877) §620 Swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym þat curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest. ΚΠ 1810 R. Southey Curse of Kehama (title page) Curses are like young chicken, they always come home to roost. 1900 Shields Daily Gaz. 5 Jan. (Second ed.) Their time will come later, when the Ministerial chickens come home to roost. 1920 Far Eastern Rev. Aug. 392/2 Boycotts, like curses and chickens, come home to roost. 2018 Advertiser (Austral.) (Nexis) 24 Oct. 18 The chickens could really come home to roost as climate change deepens and droughts get more intense and more common. P2. Chiefly U.S. Politics. a chicken in every pot (and a car in every garage) and variants: enough food, wealth, etc., for the whole population to share or participate in the benefits; prosperity for everyone. [The phrase a chicken in every pot originated as a paraphrase of a declaration famously attributed to Henry IV of France (see quot. 1830): Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu'il n'y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n'ait les moyens d'avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot! ‘If God keeps me, I will make sure that no peasant in my realm will lack the means to have a chicken in his pot on Sundays!’ The idea was taken up by Herbert Hoover, who, as U.S. presidential candidate in 1928, said: ‘The slogan of progress is changing from the “full dinner pail” to the full garage’. This was paraphrased as a chicken in every pot and a car in every back yard (or garage ) in election material for his campaign; see, e.g., quot. 1928.] ΚΠ 1830 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 564/2 The benevolent and amiable wish of Henry IV, that every peasant may have his chicken in his pot on Sunday.] 1928 San Antonio (Texas) Light 19 Oct. (Home ed.) a10/1 (advt.) A Chicken For Every Pot... Republican prosperity has reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial 'chicken in every pot.' And a car in every back yard, to boot. 1950 E. Lipscomb Grassroots Public Relations for Agric. iv. 48 While factories may produce payrolls sufficient to pay for a chicken in every pot, the pot will..be empty unless chicken farmers have the freedom..to continue raising chickens. 1992 Independent 20 Apr. 17/6 What is happening in the cities..of Asia is more like the America of the Twenties..than anything else. ‘A car in every garage and a chicken in every pot’..sums up the current aspirations. 2018 Orange County (Calif.) Reg. (Nexis) 1 Apr. h1 It's a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage;..free college for everybody; and well, ‘Make America great again!’..all rolled into one. P3. chicken of the sea: any of various types of fish known for their mild flavour. A proprietary name. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > seafood > [noun] > fish fishc825 meat fish1511 dogfish1612 cetaries1661 fishery1828 chicken of the sea1836 fish food1883 1836 Scenes of Commerce 97 The whiting has been called the chicken of the sea, from its want of flavour; but its flesh is wholesome. 1929 Daily Mail 27 Aug. 7/6 Halibut is the chicken of the sea. A tender and delicate fish. 2005 D. Nicholls Understudy 129 A..restaurant in the West Village, with a kitchen that smelt like a rock-pool, and a chef who somehow managed to make tuna actually taste like the chicken of the sea. P4. chicken-and-(the-)egg: used as a modifier, designating the apparent paradox posed by the question ‘Which came first: the chicken or the egg?’, expressing the problem of determining which of two entities or events should be considered the cause and which the effect when each appears to depend on the prior existence of the other.This particular example of the problem is first recorded in Plutarch ( Quaestiones Conviviales 635 E ff.); cf. quot. 1603 at hen n.¹ Phrases 4. The relationship between actual and potential entities had previously been discussed by Aristotle ( Metaphysics 1049 b).Now more common than the earlier hen-and-(the)-egg at hen n.¹ Phrases 4. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > [phrase] > chicken-and-the-egg hen-and-egg1855 chicken-and-(the-)egg1857 1857 Boston Investigator 18 Nov. ‘All acorns come from oaks, and all oaks come from acorns’, like the chicken and egg problem quoted by ‘X. B.’, yet oaks will spring up where there are no acorns, and it is only where they come out of the ground, that their origin is any more obscure than a chicken originating spontaneously. 1967 Guardian 24 Feb. 8/5 The chicken-and-egg attitude towards the home background of addicts. 2018 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 24 Oct. b9 It's also a little bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, because the defence didn't help itself in the second half when it allowed the Riders offence to stay on the field. P5. running around like a chicken with its head cut off (also like a chicken with no head) and variants: used to indicate frantic, unthinking, and often futile activity; = running around like a headless chicken at headless chicken n. 1. ΘΚΠ the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > move swiftly in specific manner [verb (intransitive)] > move swiftly and violently > rush around scour1297 startlec1300 reelc1400 rammisha1540 gad1552 ramp1599 fling1620 to run rounda1623 rampage1791 to run around1822 to rip and tear1846 hella1864 running around like a chicken with its head cut off (also like a chicken with no head)1887 to haul ass1918 tear-arse1942 1887 N.Y. Times 9 Aug. 1/1 Some fulfillment came to this prophecy when one day the stuff went ricochetting around like a Spring chicken with its head cut off. 1911 Z. Grey Young Pitcher ix. 96 Ken played or essayed to play right field for a while, but he ran around like a chicken with its head off, as a Travers player expressed it. 1943 B. Bandel Let. 16 May in S. J. Bugbee Officer & Lady (2004) 103 I have been running around like a chicken with its head off, but I feel that I have got something done. 2001 Kitesurf Mag. Sept. 70 I was running around like a chicken with no head trying to get all my ‘crap’ together and get on the water. P6. to choke the chicken: see choke v. Additions. Compounds C1. a. As a modifier, in the names of dishes or foodstuffs made from chicken, or of which the principal ingredient is chicken, as in chicken curry, chicken gravy, chicken salad, chicken sandwich, chicken sausage, etc.Recorded earliest in chicken broth n.See also chicken pie n. (first attested 1584), chicken water n. (1684), chicken soup n. (1733), chicken fixings n. (1837), chicken gumbo n. (1847), chicken stock n. (1855), chicken supreme n. (1873), chicken noodle soup n. (1889), chicken à la King n. (1893), chicken finger n. (1900), chicken burger n. (1933), chicken Kiev at Kiev n. 1 (1938), chicken rice n. (1950), chicken nugget n. (1976). ΚΠ c1540 J. Drummond tr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova Def. of Age sig. A.iii^v These thynges may be amended with..chekyn broth, with due rest and slepe, and also with swete and odoryferous thynges. 1767 B. Clermont tr. Menon Art Mod. Cookery Displayed I. 191 (heading) Chicken Fricassee of different Manners. 1813 J. Simpson Compl. Syst. Cookery (ed. 3) 671 Chicken Panado. Boil a chicken in..stock,.., mince the breast and legs very fine, then pound it in a mortar [etc.]. 1814 L. Tronchet Picture of Paris 126 (table) A chicken patty..2 10 [francs]. 1848 New Eng. Offering July 78 I will only say that your chicken gravy ought to resemble melted lard, as near as may be. 1853 A. Soyer Pantropheon xvi. 138 Choose, among..fine sucking pigs,..the most worthy of the culinary sacrifice. Draw it by the upper part;..and fill it with chicken sausages chopped small, the flesh of thrushes, ortolans, and pork. 1871 Riddell's Indian Domest. Econ. & Receipt Bk. (ed. 7) 417 Chicken curry... Mathee ka bajee and fennel curry with meat. 1903 World (N.Y.) 22 Mar. (Metropolitan section) 4/5 Chaw main, which costs 75 cents, is chicken chop suey, served on a bed of crisp vermicella. 1929 Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-eye 18 Aug. (Mid-West Progress ed.) The village night-clubber who likes chicken sandwiches. 1932 M. R. Anand Curries 83 (heading) Chicken biriani. 1977 Washington Post 27 Oct. dc 8/2 We ordered chicken fried rice..for the children to share. 2009 Times 21 Nov. (Weekend Suppl.) 15/1 What better dishes to eat in winter than a bowl of rich meatballs in tomato sauce or a garlicky chicken casserole? b. As a modifier, denoting a part of a chicken used as food, as in chicken wing, chicken leg, etc.Recorded earliest in chicken breast n. 1.See also chicken liver n. (first attested 1733), chicken meat n. 2 (1826), chicken fat n. (1833). ΚΠ 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. I4^v Grate some fat Bacon, season it with Pepper, Salt, two Anchovies, some Cives and Parsley shred small; mix these together, and stuff the Chicken Breasts with it. 1767 T. Bridges Homer Travestie (ed. 2) II. 40 Hard boil'd eggs, With penny-rolls and chicken legs. 1872 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 June 11/2 The corpulent lady..who devours the chicken wings and three-fourths of the asparagus. 2011 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 9 Mar. 5/5 It's difficult to end up with a flavourless, overcooked, shoe-leather dry chicken thigh. c. As a modifier, denoting a shop, restaurant, or fast-food outlet which serves predominantly chicken, as in chicken shop, chicken restaurant, chicken takeaway. ΚΠ 1830 Sporting Mag. Dec. 119/1 His father kept a chicken shop in the Poultry. 1903 Bulletin (Linneus, Missouri) 11 Nov. In connection with the farm a chicken restaurant will be operated at which poultry in all forms will be served to order. 1986 N.Y. Times 6 Apr. 28/6 Just the biker bar and the chicken shop to pass before home. 2018 @fangirlsince_88 23 Nov. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) There's nothing that makes you feel like some sort of millionaire than telling the lady at the chicken takeaway that she can keep the penny change! C2. General use in various types of compound relating to the rearing, keeping, or selling of chickens, as in chicken farm, chicken farmer, chicken farming, chicken merchant, chicken raising, chicken rearer. See also chicken coop n. (first attested 1687), chicken house n. (1750), chicken cavie n. (?a1786), chicken thief n. (1852), chicken feed n. 2 (1843), chicken factory n. (1852), chicken run n. (1868), chicken wire n. (1887), chicken brooding n. (1902). ΚΠ 1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God iii. xxi. 140 He that kept them was called Pullarius, the chickin-keeper. 1832 Edinb. Rev. 55 490 Young Nick, the chicken-merchant. 1872 Derby Mercury 28 Feb. 6/1 The instructions..if conscientiously observed, will result in much pleasure as well as profit to the chicken-farmer. 1887 I. Randall Lady's Ranche Life Montana 56 The worst of chicken farming here is, that in the summer there is a glut of eggs, about 6d a dozen. 1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Apr. 3/3 Another industry that could be well pushed into greater prominence is chicken raising. 1895 Outing 26 452/1 Wilson..owned a prosperous chicken farm. 1895 Daily News 9 Oct. 6/7 Silver medals were accorded..for the chicken rearer..and..a wheel-barrow fowl house. 1922 McClure's Mag. May 80/1 When the chicken farmer starts his incubators, his worries begin. He must keep them at a uniform temperature every minute..of every day for twenty-one days. 2015 Washington Post (Nexis) 10 Sept. Avian flu..has ravaged egg farms around the country, forcing chicken farmers to kill entire flocks. C3. General use in various types of compound alluding to the supposed foolish or cowardly character of a chicken, as in chicken-minded, etc.Recorded earliest in chicken heart n. (first attested 1602).See also chicken-hearted adj. (1629), chicken-brained adj. (1678), chicken-livered adj. (1804), chicken-spirited adj. (1822), chicken-headed adj. (1842), chickenhead n. (1903), chicken liver n. 2 (1930), chickenshit adj. 3 (1940), chicken run n. 2 (1976), chicken run n. 3 (1995). ΚΠ 1602 T. Dekker Blurt Master-Constable sig. C4 Such Chicken-heartes (and yet great quarrellers). 1629 G. Chapman tr. Funerall Oration in Iustification Nero 6 As red hayre on a man is a signe of trechery, what tis in a woman, let the sweet musique of rime inspire vs; a soft hayre chicken-hearted; a harsh hayre churlish natur'd; a flaxen hayre foolish brain'd. 1842 J. F. Cooper Two Admirals II. xi. 166 Was the prize in sight, or were you too chicken-headed to look? 1917 Sat. Evening Post 21 Apr. 121/2 The urge of this chicken-minded youngster is simply vanity. 2004 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 23 Oct. b8/2 You could forget that you're a big-boned, sort of shy chokester surrounded by chicken-headed girls and just assume..that you have style, grace and nerves of steel. C4. General use in various types of compound alluding to the physical appearance of a chicken or its flesh.See chicken skin n. (first attested a1685), chicken glove n. (1762), chicken-breasted adj. at chicken breast n. Derivatives (1773), chicken flesh n. (1844), chicken dance n. (1845), chicken-toed adj. (1859), chicken colonel n. (1942). C5. As a modifier, forming compounds in which the second element is considered small in size or unimportant.See chicken hazard n. ( first attested 1781), chicken stake n. (1785), chickenshit n. 1 (1929), chicken scratch n. 2b (1985). C6. General use in various types of compound in the names of plants and animals. chicken bird n. (a) a chicken (sense 1a); (b) (chiefly U.S. and New Zealand) any of various wild birds that resemble chickens in some way (cf. sense 3). ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) > young or chicken chickenOE chicka1398 poulta1425 chicken birdc1450 peepera1586 peepling1594 game chicken1674 peep1688 spring chicken1765 clucker1779 chickabiddy1785 chicklet1836 chickie1851 wing-chick1885 pee-pee1890 c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 4984 With bathe þe chekis & þe chauyls as a chykin brid. 1793 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 190/1 (table) Cat bird, or Chicken Bird... Muscicapa vertice nigro. Catesby. 1835 Laws Commonw. Mass. 8 Apr. cxxxvi. 506 He shall forfeit and pay, for each and every plover, curlew, dough-bird, or chicken bird, so taken. 1873 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 1872 5 217 It [sc. Gallinago pusilla] scratches the ground much in the manner of a fowl; from this habit the settlers have given it the name of the ‘chicken-bird’. 1955 Amer. Speech 30 182 The ruddy turnstone has a series of chicken names, probably given in recognition of its familiarity and comparative tameness. These include chicken (Mass.), chicken bird (Maine, Mass.), [etc.]. 2001 C. Saechao in S. Guilloud Through Eyes of Judged 120 I knew that if I didn't hit that ‘chicken bird’ on the head I would have no chance in killing him. chicken corn n. [in sense (a) after French maïs à poulet (1812 or earlier)] †(a) a variety of maize having small ears with yellow seeds (obsolete); †(b) wheat of an inferior grade or type (cf. hen corn n. at hen n.¹ Compounds 3) (obsolete); (c) U.S. sorghum, (in later use) esp. of an inferior type escaped from cultivation and considered to be a weed. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > corn, cereals, or grain > [noun] > inferior grain hummel corn1474 multure corn1546 tailings1764 tail1775 chicken corna1817 screening1824 pilkins1859 tail-end1859 the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > cereal, corn, or grain > [noun] > millet > Indian millet > Indian millet plant or panicle millc1450 millet1548 Saracen's corn1585 sorghum1597 Guinea corn1697 whisk1757 broom-straw1785 kaffir corn1785 jowari1800 jowar1801 chicken corna1817 broom corn1819 mabela1824 cholum1858 Texas millet1858 dura1882 pearl millet1887 kaoliang1904 proso1907 milo1920 a1817 T. Dwight Trav. New-Eng. & N.-Y. (1821) II. 312 The earliest, and smallest, of these [varieties of maize] is the Chicken corn. 1842 Leicester Chron. 3 Sept. In fact, what little chicken corn we have this year will make as much good bread as the best wheat of last season. 1854 B. L. C. Wailes Rep. Agric. & Geol. Mississippi iii. 188 I allude to the Holcas bicolor, Guinea Corn, or Chicken Corn, as it is variously termed. 1895 Wilts. County Mirror 27 Sept. 2/4 The second share has only yielded chicken corn. 1921 Weekly News Let. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 29 June 6/2 Since chicken corn is an annual, it should be readily destroyed during the cultivation of the corn. 2000 W. L. Rooney & C. W. Smith in C. W. Smith & R. A. Frederiksen Sorghum ii. iv. 331 These early introductions were probably race guinea and became known as guinea corn and chicken corn. † chicken-eater n. Obsolete rare (a) the Mauritius kestrel, Falco punctatus, a falcon endemic to the forests of Mauritius; (b) U.S. the peregrine falcon, F. peregrinus. [In sense (a) apparently after French mangeur de poule.] Cf. chickenhawk n. 1. ΚΠ 1775 J. Parish tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Voy. Island Mauritius 69 There is a specious of sparrow-hawk, called the Chicken-eater; it is also said to eat grasshoppers. 1870 P. Gillmore tr. G. L. Figuier Reptiles & Birds 578 The Peregrine Falcon..inhabits North America, where it is frequently called the Chicken-eater. chicken grape n. now historical and rare any of several wild vines of North America, esp. Vitis vulpina and V. cordifolia; (also) the (typically small) fruit of such a vine. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular fruit-tree or -plant > [noun] > tree or plant producing edible berries > grape-vine > types of wild vinea1382 malmsey1511 malvoisie1517 raisin1573 parsley vine1648 winter grape1670 morillon1691 summer grape1709 Pineau1763 tresseau1763 frost grape1771 muscadinec1785 sweet-water1786 chicken grape1807 scuppernong1811 Marsanne1824 Merlot1825 Cabernet1833 Isabella1835 mustang1846 Traminer1851 labrusca1854 Pinot1854 Catawba1857 Isabel1858 Trebbiano1860 aglianico1862 Canaiolo1862 verdelho1883 vinifera1888 Durif1897 Chardonnay1911 Chenin Blanc1913 Sylvaner1928 Syrah1928 Tokay wine1959 Mourvedre1967 1807 J. Scott Geogr. Descr. States Maryland & Delaware 112 Cecil county affords a great variety of grapes; as the black, red, and white fox grapes, chicken grapes, [etc.]. 1830 M. Holley Texas Lett. v. 87 Almost every variety of grape is native in Texas from the large fox-grape down to what is called the chicken-grape. 1883 Cent. Mag. Aug. 487/2 The berries of the haw, the gum, and the chicken-grape. 1922 Landscape Archit. Apr. 155 If the pergola need make no appeal to your stomach, plant Chicken Grape which has the same medium foliage,—but the plentiful pea-sized berries stain everything below. 2006 R. H. Cichewicz & L. J. Clifford in A. Soumyanath Trad. Med. Mod. Times viii. 173 (table) Vitis vulpina L. (Vitaceae). Chicken grape, frost grape, grape, river-bank grape. Infusion of roots. Chippewa. chicken lobster n. chiefly North American a small or young lobster, now typically one weighing around half a kilogram (or just over a pound). ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > seafood > [noun] > lobster lobstera1000 sea crayfishc1440 long oyster1622 red crab1674 crevis fish1688 crayfish1748 Norway lobster1777 Cape lobster1793 spiny lobster1819 langouste1832 thorny lobster1833 écrevisse1854 chicken lobster1871 homarine1880 Dublin prawn1911 langostino1915 scampi1928 langoustine1946 the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [noun] > subclass Malacostraca > division Thoracostraca > order Decapoda > suborder Macrura > member of genus Homarus (lobster) lobstera1000 sea lion1601 locusta1664 sea-locust1672 fiery-tangs1813 chicken lobster1871 homarine1880 1871 ‘S. Tytler’ & J. L. Watson Songstresses Scotl. I. 154 A basket full of the cleverest, living, crawling creatures ever I saw—crabs, I believe, but yet when they are boiled they are like chicken lobsters. 1916 Washington Post 30 Apr. 12/2 A chicken lobster is any lobster under 10 inches long. 2014 Mass. Daily Collegian (Nexis) 2 Sept. 1 Howland added that one serving of clambake included one chicken lobster, two little neck clams, one steamer, half an ear of corn and two potatoes. chicken pepper n. U.S. (now historical and rare) the kidneyleaf buttercup (or crowfoot) of North America, Ranunculus abortivus, which has very small flowers and seeds. ΚΠ 1849 Ohio Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 2 101 Ranunculus Abortivus. Linn. Common name—Small flowered Crowfoot—Chicken pepper. 1876 C. E. Hobbs Bot. Hand-bk. 205 (table) Ranunculus abortivus, Chicken pepper. 1995 J. W. Herrick & D. R. Snow Iroquois Med. Bot. vi. 122/2 Ranunculus abortivus L. Small-flowered Crowfoot, Kidneyleaf Crowfoot, Chicken-pepper. chicken snake n. U.S. any of several non-venomous, North American colubrid snakes, esp. rat snakes of the genus Pantherophis, which can feed on chickens and their eggs. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Colubridae > member of genus Elaphe (rat-snake) chicken snake1698 Aesculapian1763 house snake1807 rat snake1818 pilot snake1854 fox-snake1857 1698 W. Salmon Ars Chirurgica iv. xvii. 859/1 Our Common Vulgar Snake is without danger, tho' it bites never so deeply: and the biting of the Chicken-snake, or long black Snake of Carolina, is also safe. 1791 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina (1792) 271 The chicken snake is a large, strong and swift serpent... They are apt to disturb hen roosts and prey upon chickens. 1868 F. Boyle Ride across Continent II. 285 The boba or chicken-snake..rarely attains a greater length than twelve feet. 1999 W. L. Heat Moon River Horse ix. 407 I challenged him to name his eleven serpents, and without hesitation he said, ‘Black snake.., bull snake, chicken snake, garter snake, [etc.]’. chickenwort n. (also (Scottish (Shetland)) shickenwirt) now historical or regional common chickweed, Stellaria media. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Caryophyllaceae (chickweeds and allies) > [noun] > chickweeds and stitchworts chicken meateOE bird's-tonguea1300 stitchworta1300 chickenweedc1300 piglea1400 chickweed?a1425 craches1530 mouse-ear1578 all-bony1597 chickenwort1762 Stellaria1785 all bones1787 mouse-eared chickweed1789 cerastium1799 starwort1809 satin flower1836 adder's meat1853 thunder-flower1853 snap-jack1867 shirt button1880 1762 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. iv. vi. 427 The frequent ploughing of this soil makes it run much to chickenwort, and other creeping weeds. 1896 Dundee Courier & Argus 14 July 3/3 One of the worst of these enemies which has been encountered in heavy land this year is the common chicken-wort or weed. 1979 J. J. Graham Shetland Dict. Shickenwirt, chickweed. 2012 Times (Nexis) 27 Nov. 30 It [sc. chickweed] used to be fed to hens, and sometimes still is, and it has been called both chickenwort and cluckenweed. C7. Other uses.See also chicken cholera at cholera n. 5. chicken flu n. respiratory disease affecting chickens, (in later use) spec. avian influenza; (also) any influenza virus originating in chickens; disease caused in humans or other mammals by such a virus; cf. bird flu n. at bird n. Compounds 2a. ΚΠ 1918 Moline (Illinois) Daily Disp. 26 Nov. 14/4 Hundreds of chickens in Reck Island county are now suffering with roup, or chicken flu. 1998 Daily Tel. 11 May 8/4 The latest flu strain—‘chicken flu’, or influenza virus A(H5N1)—was first identified in Hong Kong last summer. 2009 Winnipeg Free Press 23 May e3/3 Only two years ago the chicken flu hurt Asian tourism. † chicken knot n. Obsolete rare each of the chalazae of a chicken's egg. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > egg > [noun] > part of eggshellc1300 doupa1598 chicken knot1615 eye1653 oorhodeine1875 1615 G. Markham Eng. Hus-wife in Countrey Contentments ii. ii. 44 Cleanse awaie the little white Chickin knots, which sticke to the yelkes. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022). chickenadj. Brit. /ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)n/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪkən/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: chicken n. Etymology: < chicken n. (compare sense 6 at that entry), after e.g. chicken-hearted adj., chicken-livered adj. colloquial (originally U.S.). Cowardly, afraid; spec. (in predicative use) designating the person who loses his or her nerve first in the game of ‘chicken’ (see chicken n. 13).Some predicative examples may alternatively be viewed as instances of the noun; cf. chicken n. 6. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [adjective] arghc885 heartlessOE bloodlessc1225 coward1297 faintc1300 nesha1382 comfortless1387 pusillanimousa1425 faint-heartedc1440 unheartyc1440 cowardous1480 hen-hearteda1529 cowardish1530 feigningc1540 white-livered1546 cowardly1551 faceless1567 pusillanime1570 liver-hearted1571 cowish1579 cowardise1582 coward-like1587 faint-heart1590 courageless1593 sheep-like1596 white-hearted1598 milky1602 milk-livered1608 undaring1611 lily-livereda1616 yarrow1616 flightful1626 chicken-hearted1629 poltroon1649 cow-hearted1660 whey-blooded1675 unbravea1681 nimble-heeled1719 dunghill1775 shrimp-hearted1796 chicken-livered1804 white-feathered1816 pluckless1821 chicken-spirited1822 milk-blooded1822 cowardy1836 yellow1856 yellow-livered1857 putty-hearted1872 uncourageous1878 chicken1883 piker1901 yellow-bellied1907 manso1932 scaredy-cat1933 chickenshit1940 cold-footed1944 1883 Denton (Maryland) Jrnl. 12 May Stand still, you chicken fool, you! 1938 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Oct. 14/1 Not that I'm chicken—in spite of what Davy, the big puppy, says: because why on earth would I be afraid of him for heaven's sake? 1949 Life 7 Nov. 122 (caption) The first person who loses his nerve and grabs the wheel or touches the brake is ‘chicken’, a fate sometimes considered worse than living to an old age. 1960 J. Swerling & A. Burrows Guys & Dolls ii. iii. 54 Player. Come on, quit stallin', roll. Harry. What's the matter, Sky, turning chicken? 1981 S. Parenteau Jelly & Spaceboat i. 8 ‘You are chicken’, she whispered so he would remember afterward that he was the one who backed down. 2008 Times 26 Jan. 23/4 In a week where the Home Secretary turned out to be too chicken to walk home in the dark, does the bus have an edge, safety-wise? This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022). chickenv. Brit. /ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)n/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪkən/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: chicken n. Etymology: < chicken n. (compare sense 6 at that entry). slang (originally U.S.). 1. intransitive. to chicken out: to withdraw from an undertaking because of fear or lack of courage; to fail to act on account of these. Also with of or on, specifying the undertaking or activity.It is unclear whether quot. 1888 is an instance of this sense. There is perhaps a pun on fowl n. 3. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > be cowardly or show signs of cowardice [verb (intransitive)] > shirk or skulk skulk1626 shirk1778 to funk out1859 duff1883 to chicken out1931 fink1966 wimp1981 cowardize2003 1888 Cincinnati Times-Star (Ohio) 17 May 2/3 ‘Chickened out’ is a new name for a foul given by a local ‘Fan’.] 1931 Salt Lake Telegram 19 Feb. 10/2 The Irish outfit was highly ballyhooed at the beginning of the football season, with the result that logical competition ‘chickened out’. 1943 I. Wolfert Torpedo 8 (1944) ii. 19 I just wanted to..make sure you weren't chickening out on me. 1960 Encounter Feb. 46/2 Those people were looking to us for help and—we chickened out. 1994 Observer (Nexis) 16 Oct. 13 What a shame he chickened out of compulsory ID cards for all. 2017 @dallas_vandyk3 13 Jan. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) My best friend and I are getting tattoos next week. Unless she chickens out again. 2. intransitive. Without out. To withdraw from an undertaking or activity because of fear or lack of courage; to fail to act on account of these. ΚΠ 1947 Cornell Engineer Apr. 48/2 As he stood there watching the ball coming larger and becoming closer and closer, he ‘chickened’, and ducked. 1961 C. McCullers Clock without Hands iv. 76 You would of been the first to chicken. 2010 Central Tel. (Queensland) (Nexis) 30 Apr. 10 Helen rode a camel, but I chickened when she nearly got thrown. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.OEadj.1883v.1931
随便看	nonplusser nonplusses nonplussing nonpoetic nonpoint nonpoint source nonpoisonous nonpolar nonpolarizable nonpolarized nonpolicy nonpolitical nonpolitically nonpolluting nonpopery nonpopular nonpopularity nonporous nonpositive nonpositive definite nonpossession nonpossessions nonpower nonpreaching nonprecedential

chickenn.

Phrases

Compounds

chickenadj.

chickenv.