Chick"en (?), n. [AS. cicen, cyceun, dim. of coc cock; akin to LG. kiken, küken, D. Kieken, kuiken, G. küchkein. See Cock the animal.]

1. A young bird or fowl, esp. a young barnyard fowl.

2. A young person; a child; esp. a young woman; a maiden. "Stella is no chicken." Swift.

Chicken cholera, a contagious disease of fowls; -- so called because first studied during the prevalence of a cholera epidemic in France. It has no resemblance to true cholera.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913