chickenshit

English

Alternative forms

• chicken-shit, chicken shit

Etymology

From chicken +‎ shit.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

Adjective

chickenshit (comparative more chickenshit, superlative most chickenshit)

1. (slang, vulgar) Petty; contemptibly unimportant. (Compare bullshit.)
2. (vulgar, slang) Cowardly.

   How chickenshit of that girl to just stand there and do nothing.

   • 2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 807:

     "How chickenshit do you have to be to go after an old man in a wheelchair?"

Noun

chickenshit (countable and uncountable, plural chickenshits)

1. (slang, vulgar) A petty and contemptible thing or things.

   Don't waste your time on that chickenshit.

   • 2010 December 15, A.J. Jacobs, “George H.W. Bush*: What I've Learned”, in Esquire‎^[1]:

     I went to see Lyndon Johnson, and I was telling him I wanted to run for Senate. And he said, "The difference between the Senate and the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit." Johnson was amazing.

2. (slang, vulgar) A coward.

   I told him I wasn't having his insults, and he just backed right down. What a chickenshit.

3. (military slang, vulgar) A low-ranking officer who lords over and needlessly makes life miserable for his underlings; a petty, abusive martinet.

   That chickenshit drove his men nearly to mutiny.

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chicken,‎ shit: chicken manure.

Synonyms

• (coward): coward; (slang:) chicken, pussy, wuss, shithouse
• (petty or contemptible thing): (mostly vulgar:) shit, crap, bullcrap, bullshit, junk, trash, dogshit, Irish bull, horseshit

Translations

coward

• French: poule mouillée (fr) f, couille molle (fr) f, sans-couilles (fr) m pl or f pl, péteux (fr) m
• Greek: χέστης (el) m (chéstis), χεζάς (el) m (chezás), χεζού (el) f (chezoú)
• Italian: * Italian: mammoletta, femminuccia (it), coniglio (it), merlo (it), pollo (it), smidollato (it), pappa molle, pappamolle, rammollito (it), fifone (it), codardo (it), cortigiano (it), mollusco (it), vigliacco (it), pusillanime (it), eunuco (it), debole (it) m, pisciasotto (it), cacasotto (it), pauroso (it), vile (it)
• Russian: ссыку́н (ru) m (ssykún), ссыку́нья f (ssykúnʹja), ссыку́ха f (ssykúxa), ссыкло́ (ru) n (ssykló)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} cobarde de mierda m or f

contemptible thing

• French: d'la merde (fr) f, des conneries (fr) f pl
• Russian: фигня́ (ru) f (fignjá), херня́ (ru) f (xernjá), хуйня́ (ru) f (xujnjá) (vulgar)