chick

plural chicks · obsolete plural chicken

1. A young bird.

   Near-synonyms: nestling, fledgling

   1 more example

   Published in the Communications Earth & Environment journal, scientists conclude that due to sea ice loss last year, it is highly probable that no chicks had survived from four of the five known emperor penguin colonies in the central and eastern Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica.

   2023 August 24, Pádraig Hoare, “90% of emperor penguin colonies doomed to extinction by century's end”, in Irish Examiner

   Synonyms: nestling, fledgling

   1. especiallyA young chicken.

      Neither chick nor child was left living the length of the seacoast.

      1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 41

      Synonyms: nestling, fledgling

2. colloquialAn attractive, young woman; or, more generally, a woman.

   He'll fall for any chick with a nice smile.

   5 more examples

   This chick's a machine but her friend is way more fun.

   They're going to have a chick weekend. No guys allowed.

   "I thought you had some common sense, Frank," said Uncle John; "but I see you are as great a fool as all the rest. Marry, indeed! A pretty chick to marry!"

   1860, Joseph Verey, Tinsel and Gold: A Fireside Story, London: James Blackwood, page 155

   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.

   1927, Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry

   Three cool chicks / Are walking down the street / Swinging their hips

   1958, Jerry Leiber; Mike Stoller, “Three Cool Cats”

   Synonyms: babe, bint, bird, cake, colleen, cutty, damoiselle, damsel

3. slanggovernmentA friendly fighter aircraft.

   The Aldis lamp flashes at the underside of each aircraft. It shows that the gear is down. Diegal is relaxing. This is such low responsibility, easy night duty. All the “chicks” (fighter aircraft) are home to roost except one.

   2004, Joe Welzen, The Gutsy Stomach Walker, page 50

4. datedendearingA young child.

present singular third person chicks · participle present chicking · participle past chicked · past chicked

1. obsoleteTo sprout, as seed does in the ground; to vegetate.

   plowing in his oats with a very feet furrow; and, after they have “chicked” but before they appear aboveground

   1795, William Marshall, The Rural Economy of Norfolk

2. To compress the lips and then separate them quickly, resulting in a percussive noise.

   He chicked his lips; he cracked his whip; he winked with a knowing leer; he ran down the alley and up the stair, then down the stair and up the alley

   1844, James Ballantine, The Miller of Deanhaugh

plural chicks · alternative check · alternative chik

1. IndiaPakistanA screen or blind made of finely slit bamboo and twine, hung in doorways or windows.

   […] at this time of day all the verandas were curtained with green bamboo chicks.

   1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Chapter 2”, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   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, https://books.google.ca/books?id=-AQStA5QMjwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Then, through a cautiously lifted chick, the old scene stands revealed […]

   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.

   1905, A. C. Newcombe, chapter VII, in Village, Town, and Jungle Life in India, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, page 106

   Outside I could hear the bamboo chick tapping on the door like a blind man's stick on a kerbstone.

   1999, Kevin Rushby, chapter 10, in Chasing the Mountain of Light: Across India on the Trail of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, New York: St. Martin's Press, page 216

   Synonyms: chick-blind

plural chicks

1. IndiaobsoleteA chickeen, or zecchino.

   Whenever master spends a chick I keep back two rupees, sir!

   1863, H. Broughton, The Dawk Bungalow, page 9

   1 more example

   "Can't do much harm by losing twenty chicks," observed the colonel, in Anglo-Indian argot, as the lot was knocked down to him; "and after all, there is a good deal of uncertainty about steeplechasing."

   1876, George Tomkyns Chesney, The Dilemma, volume 1, page 132

1. A surname.