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# chicken

noun (chicken, chickens); adjective (chicken — scared, slang); verb (chicken out)

«chicken» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A chicken is a farm bird that lays eggs. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#m1)
2. Chicken is also the meat of this bird, which people eat. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#m2)
3. In slang, «chicken» means scared, and to «chicken out» is to be too scared to do something. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#m3)

### In the lessons

In school maths: a counted animal with 2 legs; a farm laying eggs each day; chicken as food bought by weight; «chickens and rabbits» legs puzzles. In science: chickens hatch from eggs (life cycles); they are birds but can hardly fly. In everyday life: roast chicken, chicken soup, keeping hens in a garden. Phrases: «chicken and egg» (which came first?), «don't count your chickens before they hatch».

### Examples

- A farmer has 12 chickens and 5 cows. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x1)
- Each chicken lays 1 egg a day. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x2)
- Chickens and rabbits have 40 legs in all. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x3)
- Mum buys 2 kg of chicken. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x4)
- A chicken has 2 legs and 2 wings. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x5)
- The chicks hatched from their eggs today. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x6)
- We had roast chicken for Sunday lunch. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x7)
- He wanted to jump but chickened out. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x8)
- ‘I’ll eat one of these chickens.’ [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/#x9)

### Note

Animal: countable («a chicken»); meat: uncountable («some chicken»). A hen is a female chicken, a rooster or cock is a male, a chick is a baby. Maths: a counted animal; a chicken has 2 legs, which matters in legs problems. Trap: in «chickens and rabbits» puzzles the legs differ (2 and 4). Safety: always cook chicken all the way through.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «chicken» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chicken/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«chicken» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/chicken.html) on Mova free.