chickenshit meaning (slang): definition, etymology and quotations

chickenshit

adj

Etymology From chicken + shit.

Slang, Vulgar Petty; contemptibly unimportant. (Compare bullshit.)

Slang, Vulgar Cowardly.

How chickenshit of that girl to just stand there and do nothing.
"How chickenshit do you have to be to go after an old man in a wheelchair?"2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 807:

chickenshit

noun

Etymology From chicken + shit.

Slang, Vulgar A petty and contemptible thing or things.

Don't waste your time on that chickenshit.
I went to see Lyndon Johnson, and I was telling him I wanted to run for Senate. And he said, "The difference between the Senate and the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit." Johnson was amazing.2010 December 15, A.J. Jacobs, “George H.W. Bush*: What I've Learned”, in Esquire:

Slang, Vulgar A coward.

I told him I wasn't having his insults, and he just backed right down. What a chickenshit.

Government, Military, Politics, War Slang, Vulgar A low-ranking officer who lords over and needlessly makes life miserable for his underlings; a petty, abusive martinet.

That chickenshit drove his men nearly to mutiny.

Literally, Vulgar Chicken manure.

Synonyms: coward, chicken, pussy, wuss, shithouse, shit, crap, bullcrap, bullshit, junk, trash, dogshit, Irish bull, horseshit