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Sep 1, 2022
This week’s theme
Metaphors & idioms

This week’s words
rose-colored
Taj Mahal
hotheaded
chicken feed
third rail

chicken feed
Photo: MTSOfan

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

chicken feed

PRONUNCIATION:
(CHIK-en feed)

MEANING:
noun: A small amount of something, especially money.

ETYMOLOGY:
From chicken, from Old English cicen + feed, from Old English fedan. Earliest documented use: 1834.

NOTES:
Why chicken feed, as opposed to, say, cattle feed. The term alludes to a chicken’s relatively small size and hence their needing a small amount of feed. Also, they scratch at the soil in search for insects, seeds, etc.

USAGE:
“It wasn’t a fortune, but it wasn’t chicken feed, either.”
Linda Reilly; Escape Claws; Lyrical Press; 2017.

See more usage examples of chicken feed in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out. -Marguerite Gardiner, writer (1 Sep 1789-1849)

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