chicken scratchn.adj.

Brit.

/ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)n skratʃ/, U.S.

/ˈtʃɪkən ˌskrætʃ/

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: chicken n., scratch n.¹

Etymology: < chicken n. + scratch n.¹With sense A. 2b compare earlier chicken feed n. 1.

A. n.

1. In plural or as a mass noun: unintelligible, illegible, or roughly-drawn marks, lines, symbols, or letters, typically made by hand; illegible handwriting. In singular: an instance of this. Cf. hen scratch n. 3, scratch n.¹ 4a.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [noun] > bad handwriting > untidy or illegible

scribbling1536

scribble-scrabble1602

scrawling1612

scrawl1710

scrawls1728

hieroglyphic1742

scoteinography1779

scratch1785

pot-hookery1795

hen scrat1825

cryptogram1827

scribble1828

griffonage1832

hen-scratching1851

chicken scratches1863

hieroglyph1875

1863 P. S. Davis Young Parson xxii. 191 ‘This is a part of the Bible in Greek,’ said the clerical showman... ‘Chicken scratches!’ exclaimed Tom, incontinently. ‘Often heard of them, but never seed 'em before.’

1871 Student & Schoolmate Dec. 556 Aunt Betsey took a box down, and holding it close to her spectacles, read slowly, ‘“To my friend Maggie”... Carrie, these are your chicken scratches. Who's Maggie?’

1895 Churchman 16 Mar. 33/3 Ashamed I am of thee, Christopher, all day drawing chicken scratches on the barn door, or scribbling in the chimney corner.

1900 W. J. Chamberlain Let. 9 Aug. in Ordered to China 3 I told you in my letter Tuesday that if the travel got any rougher you'd get nothing but chicken-scratches from me.

1979 Washington Post 5 July b3/4 Jimenez glanced at his seating chart... He had worked on it for two months, but now it was full of chicken scratches and crossed-out names.

1986 Associated Press (Nexis) 2 Mar. Others were handwritten..in a chicken scratch easily identifiable as belonging to a child.

2010 ‘Jay-Z’ Decoded i. 40 I'd written the verse down for him in some chicken scratch, and..I could tell he was thinking, Shit, I can't hardly read this.

a. Any of various substances intended to be scattered on the ground for chickens to scratch at and eat at as a supplement to their diet; spec. an inexpensive mixture of cracked corn and grains. Cf. hen scratch n. 2.

ΚΠ

1898 Reliable Poultry Jrnl. Apr. 133/1 (advt.) Chicken Scratch is white limestone very rich in pure carbonate of lime. It is broken in fragments small and fine... Fowls made healthful... Unrivaled for the yard.

1919 Sci. Amer. 13 Dec. 585/3 Wilmington is today shipping sea-shell chicken scratch to all parts of the country, by the carload.

1926 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Oklahoma) 8 Nov. 7/3 (advt.) Large baled oats for chicken scratch and other hay.

1929 Fur-Fish-Game Jan. 39/2 We believe..that it is better to feed mixed grains [to muskrats], and have found chicken scratch feed to be very adaptable to the purpose.

1979 Missouri Conservationist Dec. 15/2 They [sc. starlings] are usually unwanted at feeders because of their offensive habits... Discontinue feeding suet, table scraps, corn or chicken scratch.

2017 K. S. Mormino Chicken Chick's Guide to Backyard Chickens vi. 75/1 Chicken scratch is not chicken feed... It consists primarily of cracked corn and grains... Think of it as chicken candy that your flock is better off without most of the time.

b. figurative. Something of very little value; esp. a small amount of money. Cf. chicken feed n. 1.

ΚΠ

1985 Salinas Californian 30 Jan. 9/1 (advt.) Chicken And Fish Catch For Just Chicken Scratch... The Chicken and Fish Catch is a tasty meal at a great price.

2002 F. Orr Ker-splash! ii. 13 Insurance on a boat is chickenscratch compared to that for your car.

2013 A. Wheaton Imperfect Forgiveness x. 83 I did an inventory of..poor decisions I made over the years..and it came to over $65,000.00. That seems..a lot to me but..other entrepreneurs..laugh and say it is just chicken scratch compared to their poor judgment.

3. A dance or a dance move in which the performers imitate the movements of a chicken scratching at the ground, popular in the 1910s and 1920s.In quot. 1912: the name of a tune by Louis Hirsch, U.S. composer (1887–1924), which was accompanied by such a dance.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > other popular 20th-century dances > [noun]

mashed potato1747

bunny hug1912

chicken scratch1912

bunny-hugging1916

jazz1919

black bottom1925

shuffle1925

Mess Around1926

snake hips1933

Susie-Q1936

Lambeth Walk1937

bunny hop1938

bop1956

pony1961

Watusi1961

locomotion1962

mash potato1962

frug1964

hully gully1964

dancercise1967

pogo1977

moonwalking1980

slam dance1981

slam dancing1981

body-popping1982

b-boying1984

mosh1985

moshing1987

1912 Evening News 20 Nov. 6/3 Rag-time melodies continue to multiply. The latest derivations of the farmyard..are the ‘Chicken Scratch’ and the ‘Snail Drag’.

1913 Standard 27 Jan. 10/2 Ban on freak dances... The dances which are under the ban include: The Chicken Scratch, Grizzly Bear, the Hesitation Dance, Bunny Hug, Turkey Trot, [etc.].

1914 A. W. Newman Dances of To-day iv. 80 Chicken Scratch This..is very similar to the Pivot used in Ballet Work (using the one foot as a pivot and moving the other around it by taking small steps). The only difference is that the foot that is doing the actual stepping scrapes or scratches the floor, imitating a chicken.

1942 New Yorker 27 June 22/2 Three deviations from the waltz known as the chicken scratch, the puppy's tail, and walkin' the dog.

1992 J. Stern & M. Stern Encycl. Pop Culture 347/2 Several provocative new dances, including..the chicken scratch, the bunny hug, the toddle, and the grizzly bear, that swept across a nation where, previously, adults seldom danced at all.

4. A type of dance music originating among the Pima and Tohono O'odham peoples of the Sonoran desert region of the United States and Mexico, blending European and Mexican influences and adapted from the polka. Also: a walking dance performed to this, adapted from the polka. Frequently as a modifier.The term derives from the way the dancers' low-stepping movements scrape up dust from traditional dirt floors.The music is known as waila by the Tohono O'odham people.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > dance music > [noun] > others

galliard1545

passamezzo1568

pavane1591

passy-measure1597

rant1656

passacaglia1659

passacaille1667

chaconne1685

rigadoon1690

passepied1696

rigaudon1708

bourrée1776

minuet de la cour1783

quadrille1802

treble1805

pigeon wing1807

polka1825

redowa1843

polka time1844

écossaise1863

verbunkos1880

drag1901

foxtrot1915

burru1929

rumba1931

palais glide1936

Lambeth Walk1937

jitterbug1939

high life1942

Zydeco1949

hand jive1958

hand jiving1958

hokey-cokey1966

twist1966

chicken scratch1972

smoocher1976

funana1981

New Beat1988

trance dance1988

1972 Arizona Republic 24 Mar. 47/4 Dance teams that include the Mohave Bird Dancers, Yaqui Deer Dancers,..Papago chicken-scratch dancers.

1974 Fort Apache Scout (Whiteriver, Arizona) 31 Dec. 7 The albums include everything from pow-wow songs to stick game songs, social dance songs, and chicken scratch.

1986 Festival Amer. Folklife (Smithsonian Instit. National Park Service) 103 A hybrid style of music called ‘Chicken Scratch’, or waila, which uses non-Indian musical instruments (saxophone, accordion, traps), rhythms, melodies and song forms.

2010 Washington Post (Nexis) 24 Sept. (Weekend section)18 Waila! Dance party Saturday at 6:30. Lessons in traditional native ‘chicken scratch’ dance.

B. adj. (attributive). Usually with hyphen.

1. Designating or characterized by unintelligible, illegible, or roughly-drawn marks, lines, symbols, or letters, typically made by hand. Cf. scratch adj. 1.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > bad > illegible or untidy

unlegible1451

foul?1467

scribbled1550

scribbling1592

crabbed1612

hieroglyphical1613

scrabbled1625

illegible1640

unreadable1655

scribbly1659

pot-hook1674

scrawlinga1754

undecipherable1758

scribblative1829

scrawly1833

scrawny1833

scrawled1848

hieroglyphic1856

pot-hooky1867

scriggly1896

chicken scratch1933

1933 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) 20 July 7/4 There was no mistaking that chicken-scratch writing. It was from Tommy.

1950 National Underwriter 25 Aug. (Life Insurance ed.) 8/2 Having been on the receiving end of more than one of these inconsiderate masterpieces it is an editorial pleasure to join forces with those opposing all forms of chicken scratch signatures.

1987 B. Bartlett Shiksa xix. 230 She found him in his office, making notations in the margin of a script in his chicken-scratch hand.

2010 J. Potter Cooking for Geeks Pref. p. xvi Aaron spent too much time turning my chicken-scratch sketches into the charts and diagrams that appear throughout the book.

2. Of little value; poor, basic, unsophisticated. Cf. chickenshit adj.

ΚΠ

1941 Current Life Feb. 6/2 Old man Miyatake, making rice cakes in his little chicken-scratch sweet-meat shop on Jackson street.

1989 S. Bellow Bellarosa Connection 57 He had arrived in Jerusalem to put a top dressing of Jewish grandeur on his chicken-scratch career.

2015 ‘B. J. Daniels’ Wild Horses xxiv. 340 Delia had grown up on a chicken-scratch plot of land... Buckmaster had tried to buy them out, calling the place an eyesore.

3. Designating a style of electric rhythm guitar playing characterized by a rapid, jagged, muted sound, associated particularly with funk music.The style is usually attributed to Jimmy Nolen, U.S. guitarist (1934–83), known chiefly for his work with James Brown.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > performing music > playing instruments > playing stringed instrument > [noun] > guitar techniques

slidec1608

rasgado1876

fingerstyle1923

bottleneck1928

fingerpicking1956

bottleneck style1959

bottleneck playing1968

slide guitar1968

bottleneck slide guitar1973

chicken scratch1974

slack key1975

1974 Rolling Stone 12 Sept. 48/1 The trebly, insistent chicken-scratch guitars were a legacy of Fifties R&B as played by Mickey ‘Guitar’ Baker and by Brown's own Jimmy Nolan [sic].

1984 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 Apr. d8 The..colorful mix of chicken-scratch guitars, syncopated street rhythms and percolating synthesizers recall the cinematic musical portraits of Isaac Hayes' album ‘Shaft’.

1991 C. Eddy Stairway to Hell 70/1 Larry Gee's guitar flickers like ghettos on fire..clearing its throat with staccato chickenscratch throbs.

2005 Spin July 99/3 ‘Do it for You’ begins with chicken-scratch guitars and builds into a deeply layered studio-funk jam jacked from Steely Dan.

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

单词	chicken scratch
释义	chicken scratchn.adj. Brit. /ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)n skratʃ/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪkən ˌskrætʃ/ Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: chicken n., scratch n.¹ Etymology: < chicken n. + scratch n.¹With sense A. 2b compare earlier chicken feed n. 1. A. n. 1. In plural or as a mass noun: unintelligible, illegible, or roughly-drawn marks, lines, symbols, or letters, typically made by hand; illegible handwriting. In singular: an instance of this. Cf. hen scratch n. 3, scratch n.¹ 4a. ΘΚΠ society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [noun] > bad handwriting > untidy or illegible scribbling1536 scribble-scrabble1602 scrawling1612 scrawl1710 scrawls1728 hieroglyphic1742 scoteinography1779 scratch1785 pot-hookery1795 hen scrat1825 cryptogram1827 scribble1828 griffonage1832 hen-scratching1851 chicken scratches1863 hieroglyph1875 1863 P. S. Davis Young Parson xxii. 191 ‘This is a part of the Bible in Greek,’ said the clerical showman... ‘Chicken scratches!’ exclaimed Tom, incontinently. ‘Often heard of them, but never seed 'em before.’ 1871 Student & Schoolmate Dec. 556 Aunt Betsey took a box down, and holding it close to her spectacles, read slowly, ‘“To my friend Maggie”... Carrie, these are your chicken scratches. Who's Maggie?’ 1895 Churchman 16 Mar. 33/3 Ashamed I am of thee, Christopher, all day drawing chicken scratches on the barn door, or scribbling in the chimney corner. 1900 W. J. Chamberlain Let. 9 Aug. in Ordered to China 3 I told you in my letter Tuesday that if the travel got any rougher you'd get nothing but chicken-scratches from me. 1979 Washington Post 5 July b3/4 Jimenez glanced at his seating chart... He had worked on it for two months, but now it was full of chicken scratches and crossed-out names. 1986 Associated Press (Nexis) 2 Mar. Others were handwritten..in a chicken scratch easily identifiable as belonging to a child. 2010 ‘Jay-Z’ Decoded i. 40 I'd written the verse down for him in some chicken scratch, and..I could tell he was thinking, Shit, I can't hardly read this. 2. a. Any of various substances intended to be scattered on the ground for chickens to scratch at and eat at as a supplement to their diet; spec. an inexpensive mixture of cracked corn and grains. Cf. hen scratch n. 2. ΚΠ 1898 Reliable Poultry Jrnl. Apr. 133/1 (advt.) Chicken Scratch is white limestone very rich in pure carbonate of lime. It is broken in fragments small and fine... Fowls made healthful... Unrivaled for the yard. 1919 Sci. Amer. 13 Dec. 585/3 Wilmington is today shipping sea-shell chicken scratch to all parts of the country, by the carload. 1926 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Oklahoma) 8 Nov. 7/3 (advt.) Large baled oats for chicken scratch and other hay. 1929 Fur-Fish-Game Jan. 39/2 We believe..that it is better to feed mixed grains [to muskrats], and have found chicken scratch feed to be very adaptable to the purpose. 1979 Missouri Conservationist Dec. 15/2 They [sc. starlings] are usually unwanted at feeders because of their offensive habits... Discontinue feeding suet, table scraps, corn or chicken scratch. 2017 K. S. Mormino Chicken Chick's Guide to Backyard Chickens vi. 75/1 Chicken scratch is not chicken feed... It consists primarily of cracked corn and grains... Think of it as chicken candy that your flock is better off without most of the time. b. figurative. Something of very little value; esp. a small amount of money. Cf. chicken feed n. 1. ΚΠ 1985 Salinas Californian 30 Jan. 9/1 (advt.) Chicken And Fish Catch For Just Chicken Scratch... The Chicken and Fish Catch is a tasty meal at a great price. 2002 F. Orr Ker-splash! ii. 13 Insurance on a boat is chickenscratch compared to that for your car. 2013 A. Wheaton Imperfect Forgiveness x. 83 I did an inventory of..poor decisions I made over the years..and it came to over $65,000.00. That seems..a lot to me but..other entrepreneurs..laugh and say it is just chicken scratch compared to their poor judgment. 3. A dance or a dance move in which the performers imitate the movements of a chicken scratching at the ground, popular in the 1910s and 1920s.In quot. 1912: the name of a tune by Louis Hirsch, U.S. composer (1887–1924), which was accompanied by such a dance. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > other popular 20th-century dances > [noun] mashed potato1747 bunny hug1912 chicken scratch1912 bunny-hugging1916 jazz1919 black bottom1925 shuffle1925 Mess Around1926 snake hips1933 Susie-Q1936 Lambeth Walk1937 bunny hop1938 bop1956 pony1961 Watusi1961 locomotion1962 mash potato1962 frug1964 hully gully1964 dancercise1967 pogo1977 moonwalking1980 slam dance1981 slam dancing1981 body-popping1982 b-boying1984 mosh1985 moshing1987 1912 Evening News 20 Nov. 6/3 Rag-time melodies continue to multiply. The latest derivations of the farmyard..are the ‘Chicken Scratch’ and the ‘Snail Drag’. 1913 Standard 27 Jan. 10/2 Ban on freak dances... The dances which are under the ban include: The Chicken Scratch, Grizzly Bear, the Hesitation Dance, Bunny Hug, Turkey Trot, [etc.]. 1914 A. W. Newman Dances of To-day iv. 80 Chicken Scratch This..is very similar to the Pivot used in Ballet Work (using the one foot as a pivot and moving the other around it by taking small steps). The only difference is that the foot that is doing the actual stepping scrapes or scratches the floor, imitating a chicken. 1942 New Yorker 27 June 22/2 Three deviations from the waltz known as the chicken scratch, the puppy's tail, and walkin' the dog. 1992 J. Stern & M. Stern Encycl. Pop Culture 347/2 Several provocative new dances, including..the chicken scratch, the bunny hug, the toddle, and the grizzly bear, that swept across a nation where, previously, adults seldom danced at all. 4. A type of dance music originating among the Pima and Tohono O'odham peoples of the Sonoran desert region of the United States and Mexico, blending European and Mexican influences and adapted from the polka. Also: a walking dance performed to this, adapted from the polka. Frequently as a modifier.The term derives from the way the dancers' low-stepping movements scrape up dust from traditional dirt floors.The music is known as waila by the Tohono O'odham people. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > dance music > [noun] > others galliard1545 passamezzo1568 pavane1591 passy-measure1597 rant1656 passacaglia1659 passacaille1667 chaconne1685 rigadoon1690 passepied1696 rigaudon1708 bourrée1776 minuet de la cour1783 quadrille1802 treble1805 pigeon wing1807 polka1825 redowa1843 polka time1844 écossaise1863 verbunkos1880 drag1901 foxtrot1915 burru1929 rumba1931 palais glide1936 Lambeth Walk1937 jitterbug1939 high life1942 Zydeco1949 hand jive1958 hand jiving1958 hokey-cokey1966 twist1966 chicken scratch1972 smoocher1976 funana1981 New Beat1988 trance dance1988 1972 Arizona Republic 24 Mar. 47/4 Dance teams that include the Mohave Bird Dancers, Yaqui Deer Dancers,..Papago chicken-scratch dancers. 1974 Fort Apache Scout (Whiteriver, Arizona) 31 Dec. 7 The albums include everything from pow-wow songs to stick game songs, social dance songs, and chicken scratch. 1986 Festival Amer. Folklife (Smithsonian Instit. National Park Service) 103 A hybrid style of music called ‘Chicken Scratch’, or waila, which uses non-Indian musical instruments (saxophone, accordion, traps), rhythms, melodies and song forms. 2010 Washington Post (Nexis) 24 Sept. (Weekend section)18 Waila! Dance party Saturday at 6:30. Lessons in traditional native ‘chicken scratch’ dance. B. adj. (attributive). Usually with hyphen. 1. Designating or characterized by unintelligible, illegible, or roughly-drawn marks, lines, symbols, or letters, typically made by hand. Cf. scratch adj. 1. ΘΚΠ society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > bad > illegible or untidy unlegible1451 foul?1467 scribbled1550 scribbling1592 crabbed1612 hieroglyphical1613 scrabbled1625 illegible1640 unreadable1655 scribbly1659 pot-hook1674 scrawlinga1754 undecipherable1758 scribblative1829 scrawly1833 scrawny1833 scrawled1848 hieroglyphic1856 pot-hooky1867 scriggly1896 chicken scratch1933 1933 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) 20 July 7/4 There was no mistaking that chicken-scratch writing. It was from Tommy. 1950 National Underwriter 25 Aug. (Life Insurance ed.) 8/2 Having been on the receiving end of more than one of these inconsiderate masterpieces it is an editorial pleasure to join forces with those opposing all forms of chicken scratch signatures. 1987 B. Bartlett Shiksa xix. 230 She found him in his office, making notations in the margin of a script in his chicken-scratch hand. 2010 J. Potter Cooking for Geeks Pref. p. xvi Aaron spent too much time turning my chicken-scratch sketches into the charts and diagrams that appear throughout the book. 2. Of little value; poor, basic, unsophisticated. Cf. chickenshit adj. ΚΠ 1941 Current Life Feb. 6/2 Old man Miyatake, making rice cakes in his little chicken-scratch sweet-meat shop on Jackson street. 1989 S. Bellow Bellarosa Connection 57 He had arrived in Jerusalem to put a top dressing of Jewish grandeur on his chicken-scratch career. 2015 ‘B. J. Daniels’ Wild Horses xxiv. 340 Delia had grown up on a chicken-scratch plot of land... Buckmaster had tried to buy them out, calling the place an eyesore. 3. Designating a style of electric rhythm guitar playing characterized by a rapid, jagged, muted sound, associated particularly with funk music.The style is usually attributed to Jimmy Nolen, U.S. guitarist (1934–83), known chiefly for his work with James Brown. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > performing music > playing instruments > playing stringed instrument > [noun] > guitar techniques slidec1608 rasgado1876 fingerstyle1923 bottleneck1928 fingerpicking1956 bottleneck style1959 bottleneck playing1968 slide guitar1968 bottleneck slide guitar1973 chicken scratch1974 slack key1975 1974 Rolling Stone 12 Sept. 48/1 The trebly, insistent chicken-scratch guitars were a legacy of Fifties R&B as played by Mickey ‘Guitar’ Baker and by Brown's own Jimmy Nolan [sic]. 1984 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 Apr. d8 The..colorful mix of chicken-scratch guitars, syncopated street rhythms and percolating synthesizers recall the cinematic musical portraits of Isaac Hayes' album ‘Shaft’. 1991 C. Eddy Stairway to Hell 70/1 Larry Gee's guitar flickers like ghettos on fire..clearing its throat with staccato chickenscratch throbs. 2005 Spin July 99/3 ‘Do it for You’ begins with chicken-scratch guitars and builds into a deeply layered studio-funk jam jacked from Steely Dan. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adj.1863
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