to play chicken
9
8.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
jugar a ver quién cede primero
- The teenagers decided to play chicken with their bikes, racing towards each other to see who would swerve first.
- go play chicken
- wants to play chicken
- decide to play chicken
Examples
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The debt ceiling itself is quite dangerous because it creates the opportunity for extremists to force everyone to play chicken.
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But we've been stuck watching Congress play chicken with another deadline.
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It's time once again to play chicken.
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- He wants to play chicken.
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Someone wants to play chicken.
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We need to deal with the truth, with reality, and quit playing chicken with our nation's future.
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We're about to play chicken, Miss Knight.
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The Republicans are better at playing chicken.
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You remember horsing around on the interstate with your buddies, playing chicken with the other cars?
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Once they figured out how to play chicken—mutual assured destruction—with the entire global economy, there would be no restraining them.
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Antonyms
How Risky
- Informal
9
8.8
- Informal
9
7.3
56
3.2
91
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'play' (to engage in an activity) and 'chicken' (coward / being cowardly) can plausibly infer that 'play chicken' involves testing courage or cowardice. However, the specific sense — a dangerous contest of nerve where participants dare each other until one backs down — is a culturally specific, metaphorical extension not fully predictable from the parts, so full comprehension often requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Play chicken comes from a dangerous car game where two drivers drive toward each other and wait to see who swerves. The first driver to swerve was called a chicken, meaning a coward, so the phrase now means taking a risky test to see who 'backs down' first.