Synonyms

chicken feed

American

noun

Slang.

an insignificant sum of money.

He's so rich that $1000 is chicken feed to him.
small change, as pennies and nickels.

chicken feed British

noun

slang a trifling amount of money

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

chicken feed Idioms

Trifling amount of money, as in I'm not going to mow lawns for $5 an hour—that's chicken feed. This expression alludes to the fact that chickens can be fed corn and wheat grains too small for other uses. [Slang; early 1800s]

Etymology

Origin of chicken feed

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

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.

That might be chicken feed for a company of the size of Red Bull.

From BBC • Jul. 9, 2025

Grooming services became a bigger part of the business in recent years, as had selling organic chicken feed and dog food made from avocados.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 4, 2025

Costco even built its own chicken plant in Nebraska to combat rising chicken feed prices.

From Salon • Aug. 26, 2023

That’s chicken feed compared with the 350 million tons of meat consumed around the world — a number that is only expected to grow.

From New York Times • Jun. 21, 2023

That was no chicken feed they’d just heard.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023