This week’s theme
Metaphors & idioms

This week’s words
rose-colored
Taj Mahal
hotheaded
chicken feed
third rail

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(CHIK-en feed)

MEANING:

noun: A small amount of something, especially money.

ETYMOLOGY:

From chicken, from Old English cicen + feed, from Old English fedan. Earliest documented use: 1834.

NOTES:

Why chicken feed, as opposed to, say, cattle feed. The term alludes to a chicken’s relatively small size and hence their needing a small amount of feed. Also, they scratch at the soil in search for insects, seeds, etc.

USAGE:

“It wasn’t a fortune, but it wasn’t chicken feed, either.”
Linda Reilly; Escape Claws; Lyrical Press; 2017.

See more usage examples of chicken feed in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: