chicken
photo credit: "Chicken, Beak, Red, Galliformes" by ***** (CC0 1.0) Definition: (noun, adjective) coward
Example: Poor George stayed at home every Saturday night because he was too chicken to ask a girl out.
Quote:
"I've been looking at a Bentley; I go and visit and pet it, but I'm a chicken."
- Comedian Cedric the Entertainer, talking about his fear of spending money
Chicken is usually a children's insult. For more emphasis, you can say chickenshit, as either a noun or an adjective. However, chicken by itself isn't just for little kids. Teenagers (and other people who don't value their lives) sometimes play chicken. In this game, two cars drive quickly toward each other. The car that changes its path first to avoid a collision is the chicken. Of course, if neither driver chickens out (quits because of fear), then they both buy it (die or suffer serious injuries).
A. C. Kemp | January 9, 2003
