▪ I. chicken, n.1
(ˈtʃɪkɪn)
Forms: 1 cicen, (ciken, ciccen), 2, 4–6 chiken, 4– chicken. (4 chykin, chekon, 4–5 cheken, 4–6 chyken, 5 chykyn, -on, -ynge, chycon, checon, schecon, schekyn, 5–6 chekyn, chikyn, 6 cheekyne, 6–7 chickin, 7 (?) chikin, chicking.) pl. 1 cicenu, 2–3 chikene, 4 chikenes, -ys, chiknes, -nys, 5– ens.
[OE. cicen, pl. cicenu. In the same sense Du. has kieken, kuiken, MDu. kieken (kiekijn), kûken, MLG. and LG. küken, MHG. küchen; whence Ger. küchlein; also ON. kj{uacu}klingr (Sw. kjukling, Da. kylling). The relations between these words are not clear; some think that OE. cicen represents an earlier *c{iacu}ecen, going back, with Du. kieken, to an OTeut. *kiukīno{supm}, a dim. of *kiuk- (cf. the ON.), an ablaut-form of *kuk-, whence cock.
But an OE. c{iacu}ecen ought to have given in ME. chīchen; and the non-palatalization of the second c could be accounted for only by an OE. contraction *ciecnes, *ciecnu, etc. at a date anterior to that of palatalization. But in all the OE. and early ME. examples the word remains full and uncontracted]
1. a. The young of the domestic fowl; its flesh.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 37 Suæ henne somniᵹas cicceno hire. c 975 Rushw. Gosp. ibid., Swa henne somnaþ ciken hiræ. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 132 Pullus, cicen. Ibid. 318 Pullus, cicen oððe brid, oððe fola. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 37 Swa seo henn hyre cicenu under hyre fyðeru ᵹegaderað. c 1160 Hatton G. ibid. Chikene. 1382 Wyclif Tobit viii. 11 Aboute chykenys crowyng [Vulg. circa pullorum cantum]. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 380 To boille the chiknes [v.r. chikenes, -ys] with the Marybones. 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles ii. 144 As þe hous⁓hennes..cherichen her chekonys. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 799 in Babees Bk. (1868) 170 Boyled Chykon or capon agreable. 1474 Caxton Chesse 14 The cok that nothyng norissheth his chekens. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 13 He..cheryssheth vs, as the egle her byrdes, the brood hen her chekyns. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 249 To guard the Chicken from a hungry Kyte. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 96 The superstitious observation..of the flying of vulturs, and the pecking of chickings. 1702 W. J. tr. Bruyn's Voy. Levant xl. 159 At Cairo..they hatch Chickens in certain Ovens. 1760 Johnson Idler No. 93 ¶2 The company may..refresh themselves with cold tongue, chicken, and French rolls. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. (1883) 226 The spring-chickens come to market. |
† b. Extended to the young of any bird.
Obs.| c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. xxviii. 108 The brydde in the nest is the Holy Goste..the vij. chekenis ben the vij. werkes of mercy. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) iv, The [Turkey's] Chickens being hatched under a Henne, may be kept with the Hennes Chickens. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 470 These Halcions making their nests in the sea rocks or sands, wil sit their Egges & hatch forth their chickens. 1651 W. G. tr. Cowel's Inst. 58 The Chickins or young ones of such Birds as build in my Trees. |
c. chicken sometimes occurs as a plural or collective. Still
dial., with
chick as the singular.
| 1600 Heywood 1st Pt. Edw. IV, Wks. 1874 I. 5 So our children haue beene still like Chicken of the halfe kind. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 30 In Chicken and other Fowl. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. 195 There pigs and chicken quarrel for a meal. 1829 Southey Pilgr. Compostella iv, The chicken were her delight. 1875 Parish Sussex Dial., Chicken, in Mid-Sussex used as the plural of chick. |
d. A domestic fowl of any age.
| 1827 Harvard Register May 84 Some students were ‘hooking’ chickens. 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. |
e. The prairie chicken or pinnated grouse; also, the sharp-tailed grouse.
U.S.| 1812 J. C. Luttig Jrnl. Exped. Upper Missouri (1920) 14 Oct. 85, 4 Men went out to hunt..got this Day 21 Chickens. 1876 Fur, Fin & Feather Sept. 95 You can always find good chicken dogs wherever there are chickens. 1901 S. E. White Westerners xx. 189 The careful attention necessary for the destruction of the wily ‘chicken’ or experienced squirrel. |
2. transf. of human offspring: A child.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 4182 The churles chekyne hade chaungyde his armes. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. iii. 218. 1642 T. Taylor God's Judgem. ii. vi. 82 A chicken of the same broode was Messalina. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas x. x. (Bohn) 498 Well! my chicken, said he..are you satisfied? |
3. fig. a. A youthful person: one young and inexperienced.
(to be) no chicken: no longer young. Also as a
slang (chiefly
U.S.) term for a girl or young woman.
Cf. chick n.1 3 b.
| 1711 Steele Spect. 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. 1720 Swift Stella's Birth-day, Pursue your trade of scandal-picking, Your hints that Stella is no chicken. 1809 Cobbett Pol. Reg. 25 Mar. XV. No. 12. 421 An infant at law? A mere chicken? 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. 1877 E. Walford Gt. Families I. 170 He must have been well forward in years—or at all events, as they say, no chicken. 1880 Spencer Walpole Hist. Eng. III. xii. 43 [Michael Angelo Taylor, M.P.] calling himself on one occasion ‘a mere chicken in the law’, he was ever afterwards known as ‘Chicken Taylor’. 1882 Sydney Slang Dict. 2/2 Chicken, a Girl (applied to the respectable class). 1923 G. McKnight Eng. Words iv. 61 In the vocabulary of modern youth, chivalry is dead... A girl is..a chicken, a doll, [etc.]. 1934 J. T. Farrell Young Manhood (1936) 71 He said he was fed up on the dago chickens around State Street anyway. The guys all thought that was a new word. |
b. Applied to one who is as timorous or defenceless as a chicken. Revived in
mod. slang (
orig. U.S.), often as
quasi-adj.: cowardly. Hence
(to play) chicken, (to engage in) a ‘game’ of physical hazard which tests the courage.
Cf. chicken-hearted.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. iii. 42 Forthwith they flye Chickens, the way which they stopt [Globe ed. stoop'd] Eagles. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. xix. (1821) 199 Not finding the Defendants to be Chikins, to be afraid of every cloud or kite. 1707 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. iv. iii. 54 Gib. You assure me that Scrub is a Coward. Bou. A Chicken, as the saying is. 1936 Amer. Speech XI. 279/2 Chicken, a timid soul; a sissy. 1941 Life 15 Dec. 89 Gets chicken. 1945 Amer. Speech XX. 147/2 A person is ‘chicken’ when he abides too closely by army rules and regulations, or when he misuses or abuses authority, especially in minor or petty matters. 1952 S. Ellin Key to Nicholas St. (1953) iv. ii. 167 You'd just holler for the cops? Why, man, you're chicken. 1953 R. Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1954) i. 33 Go out in the cars..trying to see how close you can get to lamp-posts, playing ‘chicken’. 1956 ‘M. Innes’ Appleby plays Chicken i. i. 17 Playing chicken..this business of proving to yourself that you're as tough as the other chaps. Ibid. ii. ii. 18 Chicken is done with cars. 1959 Daily Mail 18 May 5/6 Sit on the track as the train thunders nearer... Last to get up is the winner. First is branded ‘chicken’. 1960 E. W. Hildick Jim Starling & Colonel xi. 93 ‘Speak for yourself—chicken!’ he jeered. 1960 Swerling & Burrows Guys & Dolls ii. iii. 54 Player. Come on, quit stallin', roll. Harry. What's the matter, Sky, turning chicken? |
c. (See
quots.)
| 1887 J. D. Billings Hardtack & Coffee 52 A Marblehead man called his chum his ‘chicken’, more especially if the latter was a young soldier. 1890 Congress. Rec. 21 Apr. 3637/1 The affection which a sailor will lavish on a ship's boy to whom he takes a fancy, and makes his ‘chicken’, as the phrase is. |
4. Mother Cary's (or Carey's) chicken, a name given by sailors to the Stormy Petrel (
Procellaria pelagica): also (in
pl.) applied to falling snow.
| 1767 Carteret in Hawksworth Voy. (1773) I. 318 The peterels, to which sailors have given the name of Mother Carey's Chickens. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy (1863) 189 All this comes from your croaking—you're a Mother Cary's chicken. 1864 Athenæum 558/2 ‘Mother Cary's Chickens’, the sailors' slang for snow..‘Mother Cary’ being the Mater cara..of the Levantine sailors. |
5. Short for
chicken-hazard.
| 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. |
6. a. Proverbs.
| 1579 Gosson Ephem. 19 a, I woulde not haue him to counte his Chickens so soone before they be hatcht. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xiv. §33. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. iii. 923 To swallow gudgeons ere they're catch'd, And count their chickens ere they're hatched. 1810 Southey Kehama Motto, Curses are like young chicken: they always come home to roost. 1882 Hazlitt Eng. Prov., Children and chicken must ever be picking. |
b. chicken-and-(the-)egg = hen-and-egg (see
hen n. 8).
| 1959 Times 23 Sept. 17/5 One of the chicken-and-the-egg problems is involved here. 1961 ‘C. H. Rolph’ Common Sense about Crime iii. 45 To argue that there would be no punishment without crime and (ergo) no crime without punishment would be to import the chicken-and-egg sequence into a problem. 1967 Guardian 24 Feb. 8/5 The chicken-and-egg attitude towards the home background of addicts. |
7. General combinations, as
† chicken-bird,
chicken-cavie,
chicken-coop,
chicken-farm,
chicken-house,
chicken-pie,
chicken-run (
run n.1 21 b),
chicken-salad;
chicken-brooding,
chicken-farming,
chicken-keeper,
chicken-merchant,
chicken-raising,
chicken-rearer; also in parasynthetic compounds, as
chicken-brained,
chicken-spirited (
= chicken-hearted),
chicken-toed,
adjs.| a 1400–50 Alexander 4984 With bathe þe chekis & þe chauyls as a *chykin bird. |
| 1678 Otway Friendship in F. 24 What a *Chicken-brain'd Fellow am I grown? If I but dip my Bill I am giddy. |
| 1902 Westm. Gaz. 8 Oct. 8/2 Incubators, *chicken-brooding houses, and ‘accessories’ innumerable. |
| 1785 Burns Jolly Beggars, Ahint the *chicken-cavie. |
| 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 173 St. Mark's Place is all covered over in a morning with *chicken-coops. 1789 H. Walpole Reminisc. ix. 70 The duchess carrying off the chicken-coop under her arm. |
| 1895 Outing (U.S.) XXVI. 452/1 Wilson..owned a prosperous *chicken farm. |
| 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. 1904 Wodehouse Gold Bat ii. 19 The master of that house retired from the business, and took to chicken-farming. |
| 1884 E. P. Roe in Harper's Mag. Jan. 288/1 They are shut up in the *chicken-house. |
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 140 He that kept them was called Pullarius, the *chickin-keeper. |
| 1832 Edinb. Rev. LV. 490 Young Nick, the *chicken-merchant. |
| 1709 W. Byrd Secret Diary (1941) 10 July 58, I ate *chicken pie for dinner. 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confect. Dict. No. 10B, Balls of forced Meat for a Chicken Pye. 1824 Scott Lett. 3 Feb. in Lockhart (1839) VII. 229 Though I shall never..eat her chicken-pies. 1896 J. C. Harris Sister Jane 166 Aunt Sally a dishin' out the chicken pie at her house. |
| 1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Apr. 3/3 Another industry that could be well pushed into greater prominence is *chicken raising. |
| 1895 Daily News 9 Oct. 6/7 Silver medals were accorded..for the *chicken rearer..and..a wheel-barrow fowl house. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 16/3 Should it..miss the lizard that crawls out into the open space of the *chicken-run and pick up a young chicken instead—well, you can hardly blame it. |
| 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xx, A timorous, *chicken-spirited, though well-meaning man. |
| 1860 Reade Cloister & H. I. 69 The English gentry, in velvet jerkins, and *chicken-toed shoes. |
8. Special combs.:
chicken à la King [said to be named after E. Clark
King, proprietor of a hotel in New York], cooked chicken breast served in a cream sauce with mushrooms and peppers;
chicken-breast, a malformed projection of the breast-bone; hence
chicken-breasted a. (more usually
pigeon-breasted);
chicken brick (see
quot. 1970);
chicken-broth, a decoction of the flesh and bones of a chicken, used as a nutritious food for invalids; hence
v. (
humorous), to dose with chicken-broth;
chickenburger, a cake of minced chicken,
usu. served fried or grilled;
chicken-cholera, ‘an infectious disease of chickens, which is very destructive in the poultry farms of France’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
chicken colonel U.S. slang (see
quots. 1948 and 1962);
chicken corn, (
a)
U.S., the common sorghum growing out of cultivation; (
b)
dial., inferior corn;
chicken-feed colloq. (
orig. U.S.), food for poultry; also
fig., anything of little importance,
esp. a trifling sum of money;
chicken-fixings local U.S., chicken prepared as food; also
fig.;
chicken-flesh,
= goose-flesh;
chicken-grape, an American species of the vine (
Vitis cordifolia);
chicken gumbo (see
gumbo 1 b);
chicken-hawk chiefly
U.S., any of various hawks that kill chickens;
chicken Kiev [
Kiev, the name of a city in Russia], chicken breast fried or baked with a stuffing of (garlic) butter;
† chicken-knots, the chalazæ of an egg;
chicken-liver, (
a) the liver of a fowl; (
b)
colloq., a coward;
chicken-livered a.,
= chicken-hearted a.;
chicken-pecked a., governed by a child (humorous
nonce-wd., after
hen-pecked);
chicken-pepper, the
Ranunculus abortivus (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
chicken-shit (
coarse slang,
orig. U.S.), a coward; also used as a general term of abuse; also
attrib. or as adj. (
cf. sense 3 b above);
chicken-skin, a substance or surface resembling the skin of a chicken in texture or appearance; also
attrib.;
chicken-snake, a species of American snake considered particularly destructive to chickens and eggs (Bartlett);
chicken stake, a small stake (at play);
chicken thief (
U.S. colloq.), a petty thief, a pilferer;
† chicken-water,
= chicken-broth;
chicken-wire, a light wire netting with hexagonal mesh;
chickenwort,
= chickweed.
| 1912 F. M. Farmer New Book Cookery 228 *Chicken à la King. 1931 E. Linklater Juan in Amer. ii. v. 97 Their stomachs filled alike with chicken à la king and pie à la mode. 1940 C. McCullers Heart is Lonely Hunter (1943) ii. ii. 103 She marked the special dinner with chicken à la king at twenty cents instead of fifty. 1969 Harrod's Summer Food News 10/1 Chicken à la King—16 oz. 10/6. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 1038/1 That deformity called ‘*chicken-breast’ appears to be independent of the condition of the spine. |
| 1970 Simon & Howe Dict. Gastron. 123/1 *Chicken brick, an inexpensive earthenware container which is made in two halves, almost like two halves of a sarcophagus and originates in Tuscany. It just holds one medium-sized chicken which is cooked peasant-style in the brick. 1982 Habitat Catal. 1982/83 84/4 Terracotta chicken brick that cooks any meat to golden, tender succulence in its own juices. 1984 Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 4 Nov. 110/1 Like a chicken brick, the idea is for the meat, encased in clay, to grill in its own juices. |
| 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 30 *Chicken-broath is not thinner than that which is commonly offered for a piece of most..convincing sense. 1870–4 Anderson Missions Amer. Bd. III. xi. 176 Every Nestorian..would sooner die than touch a spoonful of chicken-broth during a fast. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' M. 386 Nursing, and comforting, and chicken-brothing me to my heart's content. |
| 1936 Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 220 The barbecues which began to dot the country with the rise of the automobile soon offered *chickenburgers as well as hamburgers. 1984 Listener 12 Apr. 11/3 Thigh meat marinated with Gruyère cheese, chickenburgers, even re-formed chicken on a stick like a lollipop, have all been tried. |
| 1883 Standard 29 Sept. 3/5 The attenuation of the virus of..*chicken cholera, by the action of oxygen. 1888 Spectator 5 May 595/2 M. Pasteur's proposal to kill off the Australian rabbits by Chicken-Cholera. |
| 1948 A. M. Taylor Lang. World War II 53 *Chicken Colonel, a full colonel, rank designated by silver eagles (chickens) on his shoulders. 1950 Hemingway Across the River iv. 25 Maybe they treat me well because I'm a chicken colonel on the winning side. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 288 It is proper to call a full colonel a chicken colonel in the Air Force, but in the Marine Corps the correct expression is bird colonel. |
| 1856 Congress. Globe 17 Apr. 960/2 Chinese sugar cane is nothing more than what we call *chicken corn down in Georgia. 1895 Wilts. County Mirror 27 Sept. 2/4 The second share has only yielded chicken corn. 1901 C. Mohr Plant Life Alabama 339 Sorghum vulgare,..Chicken Corn, Durrha. Sugar-Corn... Escaped from cultivation, becoming a pernicious weed in many parts of the Southern States. |
| 1836 Col. Crockett's Exploits 78, I stood looking on, seeing him pick up the *chicken feed from the green horns. 1865 R. H. Kellogg Rebel Prisons 109 Two buckets of mush for ninety men. ‘Chicken feed,’ the boys called it. 1879 F. R. Stockton Rudder Grange xiv. 173 The houses scattered a long ways apart, like stingy chicken-feed. 1904 ‘ O. Henry’ in McClure's Mag. Aug. 359/2 Salt away that chicken feed in your duds. 1937 G. Heyer They found him Dead xiii. 265 He was picking up a living doing odd jobs for any firm that would use him. Chicken-feed! 1941 New Review 28 Aug. 5/3 In peacetime, officers in the British Army were men of independent means to whom their Army pay was chicken⁓feed. 1958 Observer 4 May 14/7 We're ridden with guilt... God bothers us. This kind of thing is chickenfeed to the playwright. |
| 1838 E. Flagg Far West II. 72 Wheat-bread and *chicken fixens, or cornbread and common doins? 1854 M. J. Holmes Tempest & Sunshine v. 70 We don't have any of your Chicken Fixins nor little three-cornered handkerchiefs laid out at each plate. 1874 Eggleston Circuit Rider ii. 20 The strife had given them vigorous relish for Mrs. Lumsden's ‘chicken-fixin's’. 1886 Proctor in Knowledge 1 Apr. 179/1 Chicken fixings, originally a chicken fricassee, now applied sometimes to any particularly fine arrangements, as distinguished from ‘common doings’. 1886 [see gadget]. |
| 1887 Month LXI. 14, I got ‘*chicken flesh’ all over my body. |
| 1807 J. Scott Geogr. Descr. Maryland 112 A middle sized grape, of a purple colour, growing in clusters, like the *chicken grape. 1883 Century Mag. Aug. 487/2 The berries of the haw, the gum, and the chicken-grape. |
| 1867 Common Sense Cook Bk. (N.Y.), *Chicken gumbo. 1884 C. Phillipps-Wolley Trottings of Tender Foot 5 A menu..including such hitherto unheard-of luxuries as chicken gumbo..and mush. 1908 G. H. Lorimer J. Spurlock ix. 207 First there was a chicken gumbo soup, and then cold boiled Virginia ham. 1958 Catal. County Stores, Taunton June 7 Soups..Chicken Gumbo—a tin 1/7. |
| 1827 J. L. Williams W. Florida 30 *Chicken Hawk. F[alco] pullenarius. 1890 J. Watson Nature viii. 96 The freshly added Sparrow-hawk is by no means the only one of its kind, for there are four or five ‘blue-hawks’. ‘Chicken-hawk’ is another of the Keeper's names for the bird. 1925 J. Gregory Bab of the Backwoods ii, I never saw a buzzard and a sparrow nesting together... Nor a chicken-hawk and a linnet. 1958 J. Carew Wild Coast iii. 45 They saw a chicken hawk fighting with a grass snake. |
| 1950 Gourmet Cookbk. 301 (heading) *Chicken cutlets Kiev. 1964 L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin xxx. 155, I..had..lasagne and followed it with chicken Kiev. 1980 B. W. Aldiss Life in West iii. 57 And I ate up all my Chicken Kiev. |
| 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. ii. (1668) 55 Cleanse away the little white *chicken knots, which stick unto the yelks. |
| 1899 Kipling From Sea to Sea I. xii. 308 They gave me *chicken liver and sucking-pig in the Victoria at Hong-Kong. 1932 R. Macaulay They were Defeated i. iv. 33 Pox on him for a chicken-liver that ran away from the Scots. 1950 E. David Bk. Mediterranean Food 137 Take about 1 lb. of chicken livers or mixed chicken, duck, pigeon or any game liver. 1963 M. McCarthy Group ix. 194 Mr. Andrews' famous chicken-liver pâté, a recipe he had brought back from France. |
| 1872 ‘M. Twain’ Roughing It, Many a notorious coward, many a *chicken-livered poltroon. 1943 H. Pearson Conan Doyle iii. 37 He's a nervous, chicken-livered kind of man, and when I look at him he turns the colour of putty. |
| 1786 Burgoyne Heiress iii. i. (D.) What am I the better for burying a jealous wife? To be *chicken-peck'd is a new persecution more provoking than the old one. |
| 1947 C. Willingham End as Man xvi. 192 You're both acting like *chicken-shits. We win a batch of money—you're afraid to take it. 1948 N. Mailer Naked & Dead i. i. 7 ‘What's the matter?’ he asked. ‘You going chickenshit?’ 1968 Southerly XXVIII. 281 ‘You're just a pile of compromising chickenshit,’ Gillian says in a whisper. 1969 C. Himes Blind Man with Pistol xix. 203 She's a slut, just a chickenshit whore. 1970 It 12–25 Feb. 17/1 American groups are not so chickenshit about getting into underground work. |
| 1690 Evelyn Mundus Muliebris 6 Gloves..Some of *Chicken skin for night, To keep her Hands plump, soft, and white. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast (1841) xiii. 24/2 They [sc. Californians]..buy..‘chicken-skin’ boots at fifteen dollars apiece. 1901 Lady's Realm X. 652/2 The chicken-skin [design]—namely, a sort of groundwork with tiny pin-points all over it, which shows up the flowers to perfection. 1902 Daily Chron. 19 July 8/3 Fans..composed of delicate lace inset with net or chicken-skin medallions. 1904 Daily Chron. 31 May 3/1 Subtle effects of colour which [china] collectors prize under such names as ‘egg-shell’, ‘chicken-skin’, and especially ‘flambé’. 1928 Daily Mail 7 Aug. 3/2 The painting is done on what is called ‘chicken-skin’—which in the old days was really a specially prepared parchment. 1930 W. de la Mare On Edge 320 Absurd misgivings productive only of chicken-skin and perplexity. |
| 1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 134 The Egg or *Chicken-Snake..eats Eggs and Chickens. 1868 F. Boyle Ride across Cont. II. 285 The boba or chicken-snake..rarely attains a greater length than twelve feet. |
| 1785 Daines Barrington in Archæol. VIII. 133*, There are also considerable heaps of gold and silver on the table, so that these dignified personages seem to have played for what would not at present be called a *chicken stake. |
| 1856 Olmsted Slave States 674 ‘*Chicken thieves’, the nuisance of petty traders dealing with the negroes, and encouraging them to pilfer. |
| 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 313 To make *Chicken Water. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. 541 The patient may be supported..by clysters of beef-tea, or chicken-water. |
| 1920 Outing (U.S.) June 164/2 It is a very good idea to take along a roll of *chicken wire. 1963 J. Tootell Floristry ii. i. 26 Having cut a piece of inch-and-a-half mesh chicken-wire, curl the edges inwards until you have formed a rough ball. |
| 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. 486 The frequent plowing of this soil makes it run much to *chickenwort, and other creeping weeds. |
Add:
[8.] chicken-breast, (
b) the breast of a chicken,
esp. as an item of food.
| 1941 G. A. Escoffier Cook Bk. ii. xvi. 525 *Chicken breasts with mushroom sauce. 1986 Times 31 May 15/2 A chicken breast poached in a saffron sauce. |
▸
chicken-fried adj. (a) orig. U.S. regional (
west.) (
esp. of steak) dipped in flour or batter and deep-fried, in the manner of fried chicken;
(b) fig. (stereotypically) characteristic or typical of the rural southern and western United States.
| 1914 Colorado Springs Gaz. 19 June 6 (advt.) A summer dainty. Chicken fried steak. Served at Phelps 111 E. Bijou. 1981 Washington Post (Nexis) 13 Dec. (Mag.) 18 Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson used the New Deal like an upended pipeline to flood the homeland [i.e. Texas] with federal dollars, helping make it a kind of chicken-fried Saudi Arabia. 1990 S. Morgan Homeboy lii. 311 He tuned his radio to the shitkicker station..humming along to a chickenfried ‘White Christmas’. 2003 People (Electronic ed.) 17 Nov. 74 We ate a lot of down home cooking... We had lots of chicken fried things. |
▸
chicken nugget n. a small piece of chicken, typically coated in breadcrumbs or batter and deep-fried, a number of which are usually eaten with accompaniments as a dish or snack;
usu. in
pl.| [1951 N.Y. Herald Tribune 24 May 16/7 Chicken of tomorrow. Broils, roast, fries... Nuggets of meat.] 1976 Jackson (Mississippi) Telephone Directory 353/1 (advt.) Troy's Fish House. Catfish ‘All You Can Eat’. Shrimp—Oysters—Steak. *Chicken Nuggets—Burgers. 1987 T. Wolfe Bonfire of Vanities viii. 181 There's a takeout place up there,..and Henry, he likes these things they have there, the chicken nuggets. 2002 C. Newland Snakeskin xx. 261 McIndian, an Asian burger bar that sold Halal chicken nuggets along with the usual quarter pounders with cheese. |
▪ II. chicken, n.2 India.
(
ˈtʃɪkɛn)
Also
chikan.
[Hind., a. Pers. chakin, chikin needle-work.] Embroidery. Also
attrib.| 1880 W. Hoey Monogr. Trade N. India iii. 88 Chikan is hand-worked flowered muslin and the chikan of Lucknow is in great demand in all parts of India. Ibid., Chikan is largely exported from Lucknow to Agra.., to Mirzapur, Patna, and Calcutta.., and to Haidarábád, Dakhan. 1886 Offic. Catal. Col. & Ind. Exhib. 16 At Calcutta embroidered muslin is called chikan (needle work). Ibid. 43 The large collection of chikan work from Calcutta. 1886 Yule & Burnell Anglo-Ind. Gloss., Chicken-walla, an itinerant dealer in embroidered handkerchiefs, petticoats, and such like. 1908 Imp. Gazetteer India III. 221 Chikan work in fact takes the place in India that lace holds in Europe. |
▪ III. chicken, v. slang (
orig. U.S.).
(
ˈtʃɪkɪn)
[f. chicken n.1 3 b.] To fail to act, or to back down, from motives of cowardice. Freq.
const. out.
| 1943 I. Wolfert Torpedo 8 (1944) ii. 19, I just wanted to..make sure you weren't chickening out on me. 1950 Cornell (Univ.) Daily Sun 24 Mar. 4 (Wentworth & Flexner), The Harvard Student Council..just plain chickened out... [They] considered the proposal..and sent the resolution back to committee on a technicality. 1960 Encounter Feb. 46/2 Those people were looking to us for help and—we chickened out. 1961 C. McCullers Clock without Hands iv. 76 You would of been the first to chicken. 1965 Economist 4 Sept. 890/1 Nobody can trust the others not to chicken out if they take the first plunge. |
▪ IV. chicken obs. form of
chequeen.