hen

American  

[hen] / hɛn /

noun

1. a female chicken.

   Our hens only recently started laying, but these fresh eggs were worth the wait!

2. the female of any bird, especially a gallinaceous bird.

   The mallard drakes are splendidly colorful while the hens are camouflaged in drab plumage.

3. the female of certain marine creatures, including lobsters and salmon.

   I prefer a hen when making lobster bisque, as the dark red roe enhances both flavor and color.

4. Informal: Sometimes Offensive. a usually middle-aged or older woman, especially one who is considered to be petty or gossipy.

   Let’s get out of here and leave the hens to their blather.

5. Informal. a female in attendance at a hen party.

   The incident at the restaurant occurred hours after our party was over and we’d all gone home, but all of us hens were brought in for questioning the next morning.

6. British and Australian Informal. the bride-to-be at a bachelorette party.

   A toast to Vera, the beautiful hen, who’s flying our coop in less than a fortnight!

7. Scots Informal. an affectionate or familiar term of address to a girl or woman.

   That’s lovely, hen, thank you.

---

hen British  

/ hɛn /

noun

1. the female of any bird, esp the adult female of the domestic fowl

2. the female of certain other animals, such as the lobster

3. informal a woman regarded as gossipy or foolish

4. dialect a term of address (often affectionate), used to women and girls

5. extremely rare

---

hen Idioms  

1. see mad as a hornet (wet hen); scarce as hen's teeth.

---

Other Word Forms

• henlike adjective
• hennish adjective

Etymology

Origin of hen

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English hen(n) (compare Old English hana “cock”); cognate with German Henne; akin to Latin canere “to sing”; chant ( def. ), charm ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

A decade has passed since Louise James returned from a hen weekend feeling a sense of dread that a tragedy would unfold.

From BBC

No chickens warbled from inside the hen house.

From Literature

We divvied up the snake with the ax for the hens to feed on and buried the head.

From Literature

One of them is a banty hen we call Hawk, and since she is at least partially a creature of the woods it might be proper to tell about her here.

From Literature

By the mercy of God the other hen had stopped screeching.

From Literature

Related Words

• chicken
• duck
• fowl
• geese
• pheasant
• pigeon