Meaning & use
chicken
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A common farm bird kept for its eggs and meat.
Grammar: Countable when referring to the live bird; uncountable when referring to the meat.
Patterns
- keep chickens
- a flock of chickens
- chicken feed
My grandmother keeps chickens in her backyard.
The chickens scratched around the yard for seeds.
A fox got into the henhouse and killed two chickens.
noununcountable
The meat of this bird eaten as food.
Grammar: Uncountable when referring to food; use 'some chicken' or 'a piece of chicken'.
Patterns
- eat chicken
- roast chicken
- chicken soup
We had roast chicken for dinner.
I ordered a chicken sandwich and a salad.
This chicken is a little dry—could I have some sauce?
adjectivenot comparableinformal
Too afraid to do something; cowardly.
Grammar: Used informally, often after 'be' or before a noun: 'Don't be chicken.'
Patterns
- be chicken
- call someone chicken
- a chicken move
Don't be chicken—just ask her to dance.
He called me chicken because I wouldn't jump off the diving board.
That was a chicken thing to do; you should have spoken up.
Word forms
| plural | chickens |
|---|
Common combinations
- chicken breast
- I bought two chicken breasts for the stir-fry.
- fried chicken
- Fried chicken is a popular comfort food in the South.
- chicken out
- He was going to ask for a raise, but he chickened out.
- count your chickens
- Don't count your chickens before they hatch—wait for the results.
- spring chicken
- She's no spring chicken, but she still runs marathons.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hen
- A female chicken, especially one kept for eggs.
- rooster
- A male chicken, known for crowing.
- cowardly
- An adjective meaning lacking courage; more formal than 'chicken'.
Opposites
Word family
- chickenpox noun
- A childhood disease with itchy spots.
- chickenfeed noun
- Food for chickens; also informal for a small amount of money.
Commonly confused: chicken or chick?
chicken vs chick
A chick is a baby bird or, informally, a young woman; 'chicken' is the adult bird or its meat.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'chicken' correctly?
Choose one answer.
When talking about the meat, 'chicken' is uncountable, so you say 'ate chicken' or 'ate some chicken'. Options A, C, and D incorrectly treat the meat as a countable item.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chicken”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.