chicken feed

American  

noun

Slang.

1. an insignificant sum of money.

   He's so rich that $1000 is chicken feed to him.

2. small change, as pennies and nickels.

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chicken feed British  

noun

1. slang a trifling amount of money

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chicken feed Idioms  

1. 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]

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Etymology

Origin of chicken feed

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chicken feed

“Their needs and their wants are completely different than what we need here,” said Pamela Davis, 40, who was loading bags of chicken feed into the back of her SUV in Yuba City.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025

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

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2025

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

The animal rights group said its investigator also found instances of bugs in some of the chicken feed and rats in the barns where the chickens were housed.

From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2023

In this church capital dominates and I don’t mean chicken feed.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson