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Synonyms

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.

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.

“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 • Jul. 15, 2021

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

From Slate • Mar. 31, 2020

“Once I finished running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I thought it was kind of cool,” she said.

From Washington Times • Jul. 5, 2014

To keep your head together … I felt directionless, like a chicken with its head cut off.

From The Guardian • Jul. 14, 2011

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

From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.