chick
Americannoun
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a young chicken or other bird.
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a child.
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Slang: Often Offensive. a term used to refer to a girl or young woman.
noun
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the young of a bird, esp of a domestic fowl
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slang a girl or young woman, esp an attractive one
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a young child: used as a term of endearment
Sensitive Note
As a term used to refer to a young woman, chick is slightly dated. Originally it was perceived as insulting because of the perception that it infantilized women. Now the word has been embraced by some women as a positive term of self-reference and an expression of camaraderie. When used as a modifier, as in chick flick and chick lit, its meaning is not restricted to young women and its use is not offensive.
Etymology
Origin of chick
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English chike, variant of chiken; see origin at chicken
Explanation
A chick is a baby bird, especially a just-hatched chicken. Chicks are small, yellow, and fluffy. Chick can describe most young birds, from an eagle chick to a flamingo chick, or be used more generally: "Dogs aren't allowed on the beach because of the nesting seabirds and their chicks." What most people picture when they think of a chick, though, is a newly hatched chicken, and in fact the word is a 14th century shortened form of chicken. It's also long been an informal, slightly offensive term for a young woman.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The only pair of breeding ospreys in southern England have hatched their first chick of 2026.
From BBC • May 23, 2026
Managing people and predators around nesting beaches, with the modest goal of helping pairs of oystercatchers fledge half a chick more each year, brought a 45% population surge by 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026
"If they get shot when they're still sort of midway through their breeding season, it's not just the chick that dies, it's also that the breeding population is reduced."
From BBC • Apr. 19, 2026
By the fall of 2011, the first bald eagle chick, named Jackie, hatched in the Big Bear Valley to parents Ricky and Lucy.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 12, 2026
He smiled but did not tell the kids that he had seen the Delhi falcon feeding the third chick in a box on Sam Gribley’s mountain.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
