Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various hawks that prey on or have the reputation of preying on chickens.
  • noun Informal A person, especially a public figure, who favors military force or action to carry out a foreign policy but has never served in the military.
  • noun Vulgar Slang A man who seeks out boys or young men as his sexual partners.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic, zoology Any of the North American hawk species (Cooper's hawk, sharp-shinned hawk and red-tailed hawk), or counterparts elsewhere, mistakenly believed to be pests.
  • noun UK, US, gay slang An adult male preferring younger male sexual partners.
  • noun pejorative, politics, slang An advocate of war or military action who is avoiding personal military service, or avoided it in the past.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun nontechnical term for any hawks said to prey on poultry

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

chicken (in the Old English sense of cycen: young fowl, its aledged primary prey) + hawk

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word chicken hawk.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.