chicken

chick|en1 [ `tʃıkən ] noun **

1. ) count a bird kept for its eggs and meat. The sound it makes is called clucking. The female chicken is called a hen and the male is called a rooster. A baby chicken is called a chick.

a ) uncount the meat of a chicken:

fried/roast/grilled chicken

a chicken leg

2. ) count INFORMAL someone who is not brave enough to do something: COWARD

3. ) uncount a game played especially by children in which the winner is the person who continues doing something dangerous the longest:

play chicken: The kids were playing chicken on the railroad track when the accident happened.

a ) a situation in which two groups or countries threaten each other until one gives the other what they want:

game of chicken: The affair degenerated into the longest game of chicken in diplomatic history.

be running around like a chicken with its head cut off AMERICAN

to be moving around very quickly because you are trying to do many things in a short period of time or because you are very nervous and upset

chickens come home to roost

used for saying that the bad results of something someone has done are starting to happen or to become clear

=> CHICKEN-AND-EGG, COUNT1

chicken

chick|en 2 [ `tʃıkən ] adjective never before noun INFORMAL

not brave enough to do something:

I was terrified, but I didn't want the others to think I was chicken.

chicken

chick|en 3 [ `tʃıkən ] verb

,chicken `out phrasal verb intransitive INFORMAL

to not do something you were going to do because you are too frightened:

I was going to tell her how much it really cost, but I chickened out.