chicken Definition

chicken
noun

1. The domestic fowl, bred virtually worldwide for its meat and eggs.
2. The flesh of this animal used as food.
3. derog, slang
A cowardly person.
4. slang
A youthful person.
5. colloq
Any of various games which involves daring someone to perform a dangerous activity.

adj

1. derog, colloq
Cowardly.

Idiom: count one's chickens before they are hatched

To plan or act on the basis of some expectation which has not yet been fulfilled.

Etymology: Anglo Saxon cicen.

Phrasal Verb: chicken out of something

To avoid or withdraw from (an activity or commitment) from lack of nerve or confidence.