Chick

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /t͡ʃɪk/

Definitions

1. A young bird recently hatched, especially a chicken ; a casual, sometimes slang term for a young female person
2. The newly hatched offspring of a bird, typically a chicken ; an informal expression referring to a youthful woman
3. A hatchling of a fowl, particularly a chicken ; a colloquial word used to denote a girl or young woman

Etymology: In Old English, the word was "ċicen," which meant the domestic fowl itself, young or old. In Middle English, speakers used both "chiken" and the shorter "chicke" for the same bird, so the two were variants of a single word. The shorter form survived, and over time it came to mean the young of the bird, while "chicken" kept the broader sense of the animal in general. The word later turned to people. By 1860 it was being used for a young woman, a sense that parallels "chit," an older word for a young, pert girl. Both terms began as names for small creatures and were then applied to youthful people.

Synonyms: poultry, fowl, young bird, chicken, hatchling

Antonyms: adult, hen, rooster, full-grown bird, mature bird