hen
1
6.5
- noun
- /hɛn/
- Specialized
- Tall reeds circle the pool, a higher clump of green cattails near the center where a pair of mud hens glide silently, hardly creating a ripple.
- mud hen
- hen harrier
- wood duck hen
Examples
-
The marine biologist observed a female hen lobster during the research expedition.
-
Long-legged water birds: jacanas, swamp hens, coots, and little and purple herons foraged among the plants.
Academic text (2006) -
This one's got old Chinese hen tracks on her.
-
Where you been, marsh hen?
-
I took one of the boats out onto the lake at sunset to watch the water hens feeding.
-
I knew I'd made the right decision when Vickie entered our cottage late one night in the form of a gigantic mutant hen.
Fiction book (2001) -
Ben Gurion was reading a thick volume in a cone of light, and Barak was rapidly scrawling Hebrew hen tracks on a pad.
Fiction book (1993) -
And that great hen salmon, weighed quickly before a tangle of arms gentled it back into the river under its captor's careful eye, spun the scale to just over 90 pounds.
Fiction book (1999) -
In the aquarium, we learned about the life cycle of the hen octopus, which lays thousands of eggs.
-
While studying crustaceans, the scientist noted the behavior of a hen crab in its habitat.
Synonyms
185
1.0
An animal that can have babies or lay eggs
Idioms
Compounds
1
8.1
A large mushroom you can eat that has many overlapping caps and grows at the base of trees
- New Zealand
1
9.8
A flightless bird from New Zealand with small spikes on its wings that is bold and curious
- US
1
9.9
A large wild bird like a prairie chicken that lived in eastern North America and is now extinct
1
8.4
A large edible mushroom with many overlapping caps that looks like a hen and grows at the base of trees
- UK
1
8.7
A medium bird of prey with long wings and tail that flies low to hunt over marshes and open land
- Australian
A large female ground bird from Australia that builds big nesting mounds and looks after eggs
- New Zealand
A large flightless bird from New Zealand with short wings and a small sharp spur that often steals shiny things
A garden plant with hanging bell-shaped flowers that are purple and white in a checkered pattern
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word hen was later used by fishermen and markets to mean a 'female' of some other animals, like crabs or lobsters, because people used the same simple word for a female animal. That's why, in some places, a hen can mean a female sea animal as well as a chicken.