Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
chicken (noun)1.
a) the common domestic fowl () especially when young - Gallus gallus , also its flesh used as food - compare jungle fowl
b) any of various birds or their young
2.
a young woman
3.
a) - coward
b) any of various contests in which the participants risk personal safety in order to see which one will give up first
4.
short for slang petty details
5.
slang a young male homosexual
1.
a) - scared
b) - timid cowardly
2.
slang
a) insistent on petty details of duty or discipline
b) - petty unimportant
intransitive verb
to lose one's nerve - usually used with out seemed to exhibit courage, manliness, and conviction when others chickened out J. R. Seeley
Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus
chicken (adjective)1.
having or showing a shameful lack of courage
SYNONIMS:
chicken, chickenhearted, chicken-livered, craven, dastardly, gutless, lily-livered, milk-livered, poltroon, pusillanimous, recreant, spineless, unheroic, yellowRELATED WORDS:
diffident, fainthearted, fearful, timid, timorous; afraid, frightened, scared; careful, cautious, wary; bashful, coy, shy; feeble, soft, unmanly, weakNEAR ANTONYMS:
audacious, bold, brazen, cheeky, nervy; plucky, spirited, spunky; determined, resolute2.
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
SYNONIMS:
chicken, de minimis, footling, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, measly, Mickey Mouse, minute, niggling, no-account, nominal, paltry, peanut, petty, picayune, piddling, piddly, piffling, pimping, slight, trifling, trivialRELATED WORDS:
inferior, mean; imperceptible, inappreciable; little, puny, tiny; hairsplitting, nitpicking, pettifogging, quibbling; one-horse, small-fry, two-bitNEAR ANTONYMS:
serious, substantial, weighty; eventful, momentous, pivotal; conspicuous, noteworthy, outstanding, prominent, remarkable, striking; appreciable, discernible ( discernable), measurablea person who shows a shameful lack of courage in the face of danger
SYNONIMS:
chicken, craven, cur, dastard, funk, poltroon, recreant, sissyRELATED WORDS:
defeatist, quitter; cream puff, milquetoast, pushover, pussy [], weakling, wimp; caitiff, snake, sneak; ostrich, scaramouch ( scaramouche)NEAR ANTONYMS:
daredevil