Meaning & use
spring chick
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableinformalhumorous
A young person, especially one who is young and lively or inexperienced.
Grammar: Countable and usually singular in this sense; the plural 'spring chicks' is rare and sounds playful.
Patterns
- a spring chick
- no spring chick
She's only twenty-two, a real spring chick compared with the rest of the team.
He still calls himself a spring chick even though he turns forty next month.
The office is full of spring chicks straight out of college.
phraseidiominformalhumorous
Used after 'no' to say that someone is no longer young.
Grammar: A fixed negative phrase, usually 'no spring chicken'; it follows a form of 'be' and describes a person.
Patterns
- be no spring chicken
- no spring chicken anymore
I'm no spring chicken, so I'd rather take the train than walk ten miles.
At seventy-five she admits she's no spring chicken, but she still swims every morning.
He's no spring chicken, yet he outruns players half his age.
Common combinations
- no spring chicken
- My knees tell me I'm no spring chicken anymore.
- be no spring chicken
- Don't ask Grandpa to climb the ladder; he's no spring chicken.
- a real spring chick
- Next to the veterans, the new intern looks like a real spring chick.
- still a spring chick
- At twenty-five she is still a spring chick in this industry.
- no spring chicken anymore
- I'm no spring chicken anymore, so I go to bed early.
Synonyms and how they differ
- youngster
- A neutral word for a young person; it does not carry the joking, slightly teasing tone of 'spring chick'.
- whippersnapper
- Also humorous and old-fashioned, but it stresses youth plus cheekiness, not just being young.
- spring chicken
- The standard spelling of the same idiom; 'spring chick' is a shortened, playful version.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: spring chick or spring roll? spring chick or chick flick?
spring chick vs spring roll
A Chinese food; it sounds similar but has nothing to do with age or youth.
spring chick vs chick flick
An informal term for a film thought to appeal mainly to women; 'chick' here has a different, unrelated use.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'spring chick' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'No spring chick' is the fixed idiom meaning 'not young anymore', so option 0 fits. Option 1 confuses it with baby birds, option 2 confuses it with a spring roll, and option 3 invents a verb use that does not exist.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spring chick”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.