chickenshit

comparative more chickenshit · superlative most chickenshit · alternative chicken-shit · alternative chicken shit

1. slangvulgarPetty; contemptibly unimportant. (Compare bullshit.)
2. slangvulgarCowardly.

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

   1 more example

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

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

   Synonyms: chickenpoop

plural chickenshits · alternative chicken-shit · alternative chicken shit

1. countableslanguncountablevulgarA petty and contemptible thing or things.

   Don't waste your time on that chickenshit.

   1 more example

   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.

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

   Synonyms: shit

2. countableslanguncountablevulgarA coward.

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

   Synonyms: coward

3. countableslanguncountablevulgargovernmentA 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. countableliterallyuncountablevulgarChicken manure.

   Synonyms: chickenpoop