Rock Cornish hen
- noun
- /rɑk ˈkɔrnɪʃ hɛn/
- US
:
pollo Cornish
- She prepared a delicious Rock Cornish hen for the holiday dinner.
Examples
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I roasted a Rock Cornish hen for dinner.
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At the market, I found frozen Rock Cornish hens perfect for individual servings.
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The restaurant's specialty is roasted Rock Cornish hen with wild rice.
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Have you ever tried a Rock Cornish hen?
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For dinner, we roasted a Rock Cornish hen with herbs and lemon.
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The local farmers market had fresh Rock Cornish hens available for purchase.
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She prepared a delicious Rock Cornish hen as the centerpiece of the holiday feast.
Synonyms
586
1.0
Meat from a farm bird that people eat
11
1.6
Meat from birds like chickens, ducks and turkeys used for food
1
4.1
A large young chicken sold for cooking, often for a family meal
A small young chicken often served as food
How Small
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituent 'hen' clearly signals a chicken and 'Cornish' indicates a breed, so a learner who knows the words would likely infer this is a type of chicken; however the label 'Rock Cornish' is a lexicalized breed/name and does not transparently convey the specific sense of a very small young bird raised for roasting. Because part of the meaning (type = hen) is obvious but the crucial properties (small, young, culinary usage as an individual roast) are not predictable from the word parts, the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Rock Cornish hen gets its name from two chicken breeds used to make it: the English Cornish and the American Rock, called Plymouth Rock. Because crossing them produced a very small bird, the name now means 'a small young chicken' often sold and roasted for one person.