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Glite Dictionary
to chicken-fight

to chicken-fight

1 8.8
To sit on another person's shoulders and try to knock the other person off
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈtʃɪkɪn faɪt/
  • Informal
translation icon : pelea de gallinas
  • At the party, we decided to chicken fight in the backyard to see who would fall off first.

Examples

  • I want to chicken fight.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • They played a game of chicken fight, each trying hard to knock the other off their partner's shoulders.

  • The kids were excited to chicken fight during the school event, cheering for their friends to win.

Synonyms

to chickenfight
vsto chicken-fight
  • Informal
9.1

To sit on another person's shoulders and try to knock the other player off

is written with a hyphen for the same game involving sitting on shoulders

Surface Forms

chicken-fight infinitive
chicken-fought past
chicken-fought past participle
chicken-fighting present participle
chicken-fights third person singular

Morphology

chicken-fight = chicken + fight (transparent) = chicken + fight

The compound's meaning maps directly onto 'chicken' + 'fight' (a contest involving people in a chicken-like posture trying to knock each other off), so learners can infer it from the components.

Etymology

Chicken-fight comes from the picture of people sitting on someone else's shoulders like a chicken 'small bird' and trying to fight to knock each other off. So, to chicken-fight means to play that shoulder-riding game, often in a pool.