chick
See also: Chick
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Chick.jpg/220px-Chick.jpg)
Etymology 1
From Middle English chicke, chike, variation of chiken (“chicken", also "chick”), from Old English ċicen, ċycen (“chicken”). Sense of "young woman" first attested in Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (1927) [1]. More at chicken.
Pronunciation
Noun
chick (plural chicks or (obsolete) chicken)
- A young bird.
- A young chicken.
- (term of endearment) A young child.
- (slang, often derogatory) A young, especially attractive, woman or teenage girl.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:girl, Thesaurus:woman
- 1927, Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry:
- He had determined that marriage now would cramp his advancement in the church and that, anyway, he didn't want to marry this brainless little fluffy chick, who would be of no help in impressing rich parishioners.
- 1958, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (lyrics and music), “Three Cool Cats”:
- Three cool chicks / Are walking down the street / Swinging their hips
- 2004, Tess Pendergrass, Bad moon rising:
- I can't believe you've got a hot chick in that ratty apartment with you.
Derived terms
Translations
young bird
|
young chicken
|
young woman
|
Verb
chick (third-person singular simple present chicks, present participle chicking, simple past and past participle chicked)
- (obsolete) To sprout, as seed does in the ground; to vegetate.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Chalmers to this entry?)
References
- ^ Etymology of chick in the Online Etymology Dictionary
Etymology 2
From Hindi चिक f (cik) and Urdu چق f (ciq), ultimately from Persian چق f (ciq).
Noun
chick (plural chicks)
- (India, Pakistan) A screen or blind made of finely slit bamboo and twine, hung in doorways or windows.
- 1890, Rudyard Kipling, Letter to William Canton, 5 April, 1890, in Sandra Kemp and Lisa Lewis (eds.) Writings on writing by Rudyard Kipling, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 34, [1]
- Then, through a cautiously lifted chick, the old scene stands revealed […]
- 1905, A. C. Newcombe, Village, Town, and Jungle Life in India, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, Chapter VII p. 106, [2]
- It is not uncommon at meal-time to see the table servants chasing the sparrows about the room, endeavouring to drive them out while some one holds up the "chick" or bamboo net which covers the doorway.
- 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 2, [3]
- […] at this time of day all the verandas were curtained with green bamboo chicks.
- 1999, Kevin Rushby, Chasing the Mountain of Light: Across India on the Trail of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, New York: St. Martin's Press, Chapter 10, p. 216, [4]
- Outside I could hear the bamboo chick tapping on the door like a blind man's stick on a kerbstone.
- 1890, Rudyard Kipling, Letter to William Canton, 5 April, 1890, in Sandra Kemp and Lisa Lewis (eds.) Writings on writing by Rudyard Kipling, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 34, [1]
Synonyms
Derived terms
Yola
Noun
chick
References
- J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪk
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English slang
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for quotations/Chalmers
- English terms borrowed from Hindi
- English terms derived from Hindi
- English terms borrowed from Urdu
- English terms derived from Urdu
- English terms derived from Persian
- Indian English
- Pakistani English
- en:Baby animals
- en:Birds
- en:Chickens
- Yola lemmas
- Yola nouns