Forms: 4–5 chike, chyke, 5–6 chyk, 6 chik, (cheke), 6–7 chicke, 6– chick. [A shortened form of CHICKEN. Probably in its origin merely a phonetic development, the final n being (in some dialects) lost, as in the inflexion of nouns and verbs, and the resulting final e then disappearing in the ordinary way. A few examples of the intermediate chicke have come down; cf. also lent from lenten; often, ofte, oft; ME. selden, selde, seld, etc. Chick is now treated generally as a kind of diminutive of chicken; but in s.w. dialect, chick is singular, chicken plural; and it appears to be certain that there chick, chicken, are the worn-down forms of ME. chike(n, chikene, OE. cicen, cicenu, the result being to bring them apparently into the class of ox, oxen, and dial. house, housen, vurze, vurzen.]
1. A chicken; esp. a young chicken; sometimes, the young of any bird.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 547. Hir flesh tendre as is a chike.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., VI. xix. in Ashm. (1652), 165. The substance of an Egg by nature ys wrought Into a Chyk.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., 203. Two greate chykens, the one was a hen chik & the other a cock chyk.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 199. As the old cocke crowes so doeth the chick.
1707. Swift, Manner of Living, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 288. On rainy days alone I dine Upon a chick and pint of wine.
1886. Illustr. Lond. News, 6 Feb., 142/2. The … courage which the hen exhibits when her chick is threatened with the foe.
2. esp. The young bird still in the egg or only just hatched.
1601. Holland, Pliny, X. liii. 298 (R.). By the twentie day (if the egs be stirred) ye shall heare the chicke to peepe within the verie shell.
1672. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. vi. § 13. What the Hen by Incubation or Hovering, is to the Egg or Chick.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 120, ¶ 14. With how much Nicety and Attention does she [the Hen] help the Chick to break its Prison?
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. The Chick within the egg sets itself free by tapping with its bill … against the shell.
3. transf. Applied to human offspring; = CHICKEN 2; esp. in alliteration with child. Sometimes as a term of endearment (see quot. 1610).
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 2159. He is the fendes chike.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 4332. He semeþ ful wel þe deuels chyke, y-sprong of þe pyt of helle.
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 318. My Ariel; chicke That is thy charge.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Bremant, Hee hath nor child nor chicke to care for.
1630. Dekker, 2nd Pt. Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 104. I haue no wife, I haue no child, haue no chick.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., For Duke of Yorke, 8. And so dresse him up with love, As to be the chick of Jove.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 280. He … had no chick or child to bless his house.
4. Digby chick: a small kind of dried herring.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 72. Samples of Yarmouth Golden Digby Chicks in tins hermetically sealed.
1887. Daily News, 2 May, 2/8. Digby chicks, 6d. per bundle.
5. Comb., as † chick-master, chicken-keeper; chickpecked (nonce-wd. after hen-pecked).
1600. Holland, Livy, IX. xiv. 322. The Chick-master [pullarius] … sendeth mee word that the birds feed right.
1880. J. B. Harwood, Young Ld. Penrith, I. iv. 49. Families in which … the old folks … sorely chickpecked, yield precedence to the young.
