Definition of "chicken" []

• The common domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus) or its young. (noun)
• Any of various similar or related birds. (noun)
• The flesh of the common domestic fowl. (noun)
• Slang A coward. (noun)
• Any of various foolhardy competitions in which the participants persist in a dangerous course of action until one loses nerve and stops. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Our ownership of more than one inspirational book that began with the phrase "chicken soup," yet contained no recipes."
• "We both ordered a dish that had the word chicken in it."
• "Till they are four months old, the term chicken is applied to the young female; after that age they are called pullets, till they begin to lay, when they are called hens."