chicken

noun

/ˈtʃɪkɪn/

Idioms

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[countable] a large bird that is often kept for its eggs or meat
- They keep chickens in the back yard.
- free-range chickens
- Chickens were pecking at the ground.
- the sound of chickens clucking
compare cock, hen see also spring chicken
Extra Examples
- A few chickens were scratching around the yard.
- Are we just going to sit here like trussed up chickens?
- Battery chickens have miserable lives.
- Free-range chickens have happy lives.
- a crate of live chickens
Topics Birdsa1
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adjective
- battery
- broiler
- corn-fed
- …
verb + chicken
- keep
- raise
- kill
- …
chicken + verb
- peck
- scratch
- cluck
- …
chicken + noun
- farmer
- coop
- run
- …
See full entry
[uncountable] meat from a chicken
- fried chicken
- roast/grilled chicken
- succulent pieces of chicken
- chicken and chips
- chicken breasts/wings
- chicken livers/thighs
- chicken nuggets
- a chicken sandwich
- chicken soup
- chicken stock
see also coronation chickenTopics Fooda1
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adjective
- fresh
- frozen
- organic
- …
… of chicken
- piece
- strip
verb + chicken
- eat
- have
- cook
- …
chicken + noun
- breast
- drumsticks
- giblets
- …
phrases
- (a) breast of chicken
- (a) leg of chicken
See full entry
[countable] a person who is not brave or is afraid to do something
- He called me a chicken because I wouldn't swim in the river.

Word OriginOld English cīcen, cȳcen, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kieken and German Küchlein, and probably also to cock.

Idioms

a chicken-and-egg situation, problem, etc.

a situation in which it is difficult to tell which one of two things was the cause of the other

something comes home to roost

(also the chickens come home to roost)

used to say that if somebody says or does something bad or wrong, it will affect them badly in the future

don’t count your chickens (before they are hatched)

(saying) you should not be too confident that something will be successful, because something may still go wrongTopics Successc2

play chicken

to play a game in which people do something dangerous for as long as they can to show how brave they are. The person who stops first has lost the game.
- The children had been playing chicken by running across the railway line.
Topics Games and toysc2

run around like a headless chicken

to be very busy and active trying to do something, but not very organized, with the result that you do not succeedTopics Difficulty and failurec2