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A young person; a child; esp. a young woman; a maiden. "Stella is no chicken." Swift. Chicken cholera, a contagious disease of fowls; - - so called because first studied during the prevalence of a cholera epidemic in France. It has no resemblance to true cholera.

A mild, eruptive disease, generally attacking children only; varicella.

Having a narrow, projecting chest, caused by forward curvature of the vertebral column.

Timid; fearful; cowardly. Bunyan.

The common American gallinule.

A name used in calling a hen or chicken. Shak.

Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2). That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird. Shak. The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes. Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20).

ell, that no cock could be truly game unless the mother was a blue hen, whence Blue Hen's Chickens came to be a nickname for the people of Delaware.

A chicken or other bird fit for broiling. [Colloq.]

The young birds hatched at one time; a hatch; as, a brood of chicken. As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings. Luke xiii. 34. A hen followed by a brood of ducks. Spectator.

A castrated cock, esp. when fattened; a male chicken gelded to improve his flesh for the table. Shak. The merry thought of a capon. W. Irving.

A chicken.

A chicken; a fowl; also, a trivial term of endearment for a child.

A small chick or chicken.

A chicken; -- used as a diminutive or pet name, especially in calling fowls.

and cramps, usually caused by imprudence in diet or by gastrointestinal disturbance. -- Chicken cholera. See under Chicken. -- Hog cholera. See under Hog. -- Sporadic cholera, a disease somewhat resembling the Asiatic cholera, but originating where it occurs, and rarely becoming epidemic.

To make a noise resembling that of a hen when she calls her chickens; to cluck.

To call, as a hen her chickens; to cluck. [Obs.] Dryden.

To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens. She, poor hen, fond of no second brood, Has clucked three to the wars. Shak.

ke again. Shak. They with their quills did all the hurt they could, And cuffed the tender chickens from their food. Dryden.