Chick"en (?), n. [AS. cicen, cyceun, dim. of coc cock; akin to LG. kiken, kuken, D. Kieken, kuiken, G. kuchkein. See Cock the animal.]
1.
A young bird or fowl, esp. a young barnyard fowl.
2.
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.
© Webster 1913.