Chicken Little
- proper noun
- Literature
:
Pollito Pío
- And who better to wheel out for one last scary performance than Chicken Little himself?
Examples
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When everyone started panicking about the storm, I joked that they were acting like Chicken Little.
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See what I meant by "Chicken Little"?
Blog text (7) -
Ron Paul is Chicken Little in a suit.
Blog text (7) -
Believe me, I'm not the type of person to run around like Chicken Little.
Blog text (7) -
I said that he sounded like Chicken Little, but he kept right on going and then imparted his "solutions."
Blog text (7) -
In the meeting, his warnings about the project's failure reminded me of Chicken Little predicting the sky was falling.
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My friend tends to be a bit of a Chicken Little, always worrying about things that might never happen.
Synonyms
301
8.4
A person who is easily frightened and not brave
21
9.9
A person or action that is cowardly and petty
1
8.9
A person who is easily frightened and avoids danger
Surface Forms
Morphology
chicken + Little
Although 'chicken' signals cowardice and 'little' is diminutive, the expression is a cultural proper name from a folk tale referring specifically to someone who panics and thinks disaster is imminent; that story-based meaning is not fully derivable from the parts. A B1 learner who knows the words might infer a timid or small coward (partial clue), but would not reliably predict the panic/‘sky-is-falling’ sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Chicken Little comes from an old folk tale about a small chicken who is hit on the head by an acorn and mistakes it for the sky falling. The bird runs about warning others and starting a panic, so Chicken Little is used for someone who 'panics easily' or 'believes disaster is coming'.