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Glite Dictionary
🐥 A young chicken 🧒 A young person
spring chicken

spring chicken

1 4.6
A young chicken that is tender and good for roasting
  • noun
  • /sprɪŋ ˈtʃɪkɪn/
translation icon : pollo de primavera
  • We had a delicious spring chicken for dinner last night.

Examples

  • The chef prepared a spring chicken with herbs and lemon.

  • The chef recommended a delicious recipe featuring a juicy spring chicken marinated in herbs.

  • At the market, the butcher claimed his spring chicken was the juiciest in town.

  • For Sunday dinner, we roasted a spring chicken with fresh herbs from the garden.

  • The chef recommended using a spring chicken for the recipe because of its tender meat.

  • For dinner, we decided to roast a spring chicken with vegetables.

  • On the farm, the spring chicken was known for its tender meat and great flavor.

Synonyms

chicken
vsspring chicken
586 1.0

Meat from a farm bird that people eat

is specifically young and tender chosen for roasting rather than general use
pollo
vsspring chicken
  • US
1 5.0

A young chicken, often a chick, that people raise on farms for food

is used in cooking contexts to denote tender meat rather than farming
roaster
vsspring chicken
1 4.1

A large young chicken sold for cooking, often for a family meal

is defined by tenderness rather than emphasis on animal size
fryer
vsspring chicken
  • US
1 2.6

A young chicken sold for eating that is small and tender so it cooks quickly

is best for roasting and not mainly intended for frying
poussin
vsspring chicken
9.3

A small young chicken often served as food

is focused on roasting suitability rather than general cooking

How Tender

spring chicken
1 4.6
Cornish
8.1
chicken
586 1.0
hen
9 1.0

Surface Forms

spring chicken singular
spring chickens plural

Morphology

spring + chicken

The components 'spring' and 'chicken' can evoke the image of a young, tender bird (chicks associated with spring), so the idea of youth is partly derivable from the constituents. However, the idiomatic use to describe a person (especially the negative phrasing 'no spring chicken' meaning 'not young anymore') is a metaphorical extension and not fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Spring chicken originally meant a chicken born in spring, when chicks are very young and their meat is tender and good for roasting. That's why cooks call a young, juicy bird a spring chicken.