chicken

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A common domesticated fowl (Gallus domesticus) widely raised for meat and eggs and believed to be descended from the jungle fowl G. gallus.
• noun Any of various similar or related birds.
• noun The flesh of the chicken, used as food.
• noun Slang A coward.
• noun Any of various foolhardy competitions in which the participants persist in a dangerous course of action until one loses nerve and stops.
• noun Vulgar Slang A young gay male, especially as sought by an older man.
• adjective Afraid; cowardly.
• intransitive verb To act in a cowardly manner; lose one's nerve.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Embroidery, especially embroidery upon muslin.
• noun The young of the domestic hen: in this sense now less exact than chick.
• noun A domestic or barn-yàrd fowl, especially one less than a year old.
• noun The young of some birds other than the domestic hen.
• noun A common name of the pinnated grouse or prairie-hen (prairie-chicken), Cupidonia cupido (see cut under Cupidonia), and of the sharp-tailed grouse, Pediæcetes phasianellus.
• noun A person of tender years; a child: sometimes used as a term of endearment, or with a negative (no chicken), in satirical implication of mature years.
• noun A name applied with a qualifying adjective to various fishes, as in the north of Ireland to the Atherina presbyter, called the Portaferry chicken.
• noun A kind of turtle whose shell is used in commerce.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A young bird or fowl, esp. a young barnyard fowl.
• noun A young person; a child; esp. a young woman; a maiden; same as spring chicken.
• noun a contagious disease of fowls; -- so called because first studied during the prevalence of a cholera epidemic in France. It has no resemblance to true cholera.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun countable A domestic fowl, Gallus gallus, especially when young
• noun uncountable The meat from this bird eaten as food.
• noun countable, slang A coward.
• noun countable, gay slang A young, attractive, slim man, usually having little body hair. Cf. chickenhawk
• noun countable, slang A young or inexperienced person.
• noun A confrontational game in which the participants move toward each other at high speed (usually in automobiles); the player who turns first to avoid colliding into the other is the loser.
• noun The game of dare.
• adjective cowardly
• verb intransitive To avoid as a result of fear.
• verb intransitive To develop physical or other characteristics resembling a chicken's, for example, bumps on the skin.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy
• noun a domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl
• adjective easily frightened
• noun a foolhardy competition; a dangerous activity that is continued until one competitor becomes afraid and stops
• noun the flesh of a chicken used for food