Chicken Little

American  

noun

1. a person who constantly warns that a calamity is imminent; a vociferous pessimist.

   The Chicken Littles are warning that the stock market will collapse.

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Etymology

Origin of Chicken Little

From a character in nursery tales (also known as Henny Penny, Chicken-Diddle, or Chicken-Licken) who, when struck on the head by an object from above, panics and believes that the sky is falling

Example Sentences

“I’m concerned that people will think it was the Chicken Little, you know, ‘Y’all said the sky was falling, and now nothing’s happened,’” she said in a phone interview.

From Salon • Jul. 18, 2025

"We need to take these glaciers seriously without sounding like Chicken Little," Joughin said in an email.

From Fox News • Feb. 2, 2022

Wheeler counsels: “Clear heads are needed to separate what is only hypothetical possibility based on worst-case assumptions” — the FAA’s Chicken Little scenario — “from what is highly probable based on real-world use.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 18, 2022

“I know so much about what’s happening in that state that I am like Chicken Little, running around going, ‘Everyone get out, but everyone stay because it’s also a great state.’

From Slate • Jul. 26, 2021

Problem was, my inner voice resembled Chicken Little: it was screaming that I was about to die, but it did that almost every time I laced up my climbing boots.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• pessimist