like a chicken with its head cut off

Idioms  

1. In a frenzied manner, distractedly, crazily. For example, She ran around the station looking for her lost bag like a chicken with its head cut off. This graphic simile alludes to the fact that the body of a chicken whose head has been cut off sometimes totters about crazily before succumbing.

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Example Sentences

And then Art had me—eager, enthusiastic, willing to help but with energy more like a chicken with its head cut off.

From Literature

“Our shape is terrible. We’re not connected from front to back. … We have to fight, but we have to work hard and we have to be smart about how we go about it. We can’t just run around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

From Washington Post

“We were running around like a chicken with its head cut off, throwing stuff into the car. Then we say, ‘Okay, that’s it … we got to go.”

From Seattle Times

My mother would say they acting like a chicken with its head cut off.

From Slate

He’s busy down there eating everything that falls inside, running around like a chicken with its head cut off, the head on the floor, munching food of its own.

From Literature

Related Words

• agitated
• anxious
• concerned
• confused
• crazy
• distressed
• frantic
• hysterical
• mad
• perturbed
• tormented
• troubled