chicken 1 of 2

as in coward
a person who shows a shameful lack of courage in the face of danger a staunch hawk during the drumbeat for war, he proved to be a chicken when it came to actually fighting it

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

chicken

2 of 2

adjective

Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of chicken
Noun
The chicken was perfectly juicy and tender, and the sauce had a good kick to it! Alexis Simmerman, Austin American-Statesman, 11 Dec. 2024 In June 2021, as reported by The Verge, a McDonald’s chicken nugget that resembled an Among Us Crewmate sold for just shy of $100,000 on eBay. Mangione’s gamer history According to NBC News, Mangione was in a group of Ivy League gamers at the University of Pennsylvania who played Among Us together. Alyssa Mercante, Rolling Stone, 10 Dec. 2024 While preparing handmade pork and chicken tamales remains a lengthy process today, back then, his mother filled hers with turkey leg meat and hog’s head—two ingredients that took hours to prepare. Cat Cardenas, Southern Living, 30 Nov. 2024 Plus, obsessing over chicken rice, how to use extra pumpkin filling, where chefs eat on their night off and how food waste affects climate change. Laurie Ochoa, Los Angeles Times, 30 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for chicken 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chicken
Noun
  • William quickly places Ian under arrest for assaulting an officer, as Rachel calls him a coward.
    Lincee Ray, EW.com, 14 Dec. 2024
  • The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) Bob Hope didn’t so much play characters as variations on the Bob Hope persona, a wisecracking coward with a tendency to get in way over his head then make matters worse for himself.
    Keith Phipps, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • The look features bright coral eyeshadow covering the eyelid, a fuchsia shade in the crease, and a swipe of fluorescent yellow eyeliner on the outside half of the eye and right under the brow.
    Andrea Park, Teen Vogue, 20 July 2017
  • Three prominent Austin chefs teamed up with the Youngblood family to build a new restaurant from scratch that looks like a legacy chicken dinner house, down to the bright blue-and-yellow colors and the helpings of hot yeast rolls with honey.
    Bud Kennedy, star-telegram, 19 July 2017
Adjective
  • The result of the shift could be a real deal of the century: an abatement of the multipronged conflicts raging in the Middle East, a political horizon and reconstruction for the Palestinians and the Lebanese, and some nominal concessions from Tehran on its nuclear program and regional malfeasance.
    Suzanne Maloney, Foreign Affairs, 10 Dec. 2024
  • Assad retained nominal control of much of the country with Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah assistance.
    Victoria Beaule, ABC News, 8 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • One who hates raisins and one who’s afraid of the wind.
    Armond White, National Review, 13 Dec. 2024
  • Hit lists with images of bullets are circulating online with warnings that industry leaders should be afraid.
    Devna Bose and John Seewer, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • Although the slippers looked nearly identical, a consultant for the Smithsonian analyzed slight differences in the pairs and determined that the ones that were sold on Saturday were in many of the most famous scenes of the movie.
    Hank Sanders, New York Times, 8 Dec. 2024
  • Marcello Hernández turns in an excellent performance as Soto, but overall, there is a slight disjointedness to this cold open, even while resurrecting an iconic character.
    Rosa Escandon, Forbes, 8 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • That evening, in the no man’s land, a field strewn with empty water bottles, four Shia families sat on a picnic blanket around a burner attached to a gas tank, looking scared and drinking yerba mate.
    Eliza Griswold, The New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2024
  • Once glued to their hiding spot, a scared cat may not come out when called by its owner.
    Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 13 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • The rock, ringed with black and marked by distinctive white veins and dozens of tiny bright spots, was discovered as Perseverance explored a quarter-mile-wide valley called Neretva Vallis.
    Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 18 Dec. 2024
  • You’ll be tempted to look for similarities with other places—the tiny, colorful homes in Icelandic villages; the cod-reliant communities in Norway; and the accents that sound far more Irish than Canadian—but there’s simply no other place like it.
    CNT Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • His fervor to determine who took the weapon reveals a shockingly monstrous side, turning his wife and children into frightened suspects and leading to a jarring tonal-shift ending that proves to be a cathartic, believable final destination for a film simmering with mistrust and anger.
    Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Nov. 2024
  • At worst, this could lead to one or more Kent State-type incidents, with frightened Guardsmen in hostile, unfamiliar territory.
    Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 21 Nov. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near chicken

Cite this Entry

“Chicken.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chicken. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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