chicken wire

American

noun

a light, wire netting having a large, hexagonal mesh, used especially as fencing.

chicken wire British

noun

wire netting with a hexagonal mesh

"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

Etymology

Origin of chicken wire

An Americanism dating back to 1915–20

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.

Graphene is made of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern that looks like chicken wire.

From Science Daily • Nov. 8, 2025

The rooms have no ceilings and are instead covered in chicken wire.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 27, 2025

By all accounts, visiting the site from inside the chicken wire is a crimped and diminished experience.

From Slate • Jul. 30, 2025

In two hours, the duo planted seeds for 17 oak trees, enclosed them in mesh chicken wire to deter hungry fauna and tagged each one.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 14, 2024

That week, a man put chicken wire around his garden, five feet high, complete with a little gate and padlock.

From "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman

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