What does chickenshit mean?
Chickenshit is a coarse English slang term with two main uses. As a noun, it denotes a person regarded as cowardly or contemptibly timid — someone who shrinks from risk or confrontation. In its second, uncountable sense, it refers to trivial, petty, or irritating matters, especially bureaucratic busywork or nitpicking regulations that feel beneath serious attention; in this use it is often phrased as 'pure chickenshit' or 'chickenshit detail work'. The word also functions attributively as an adjective meaning petty, trivial, or gutless, as in 'chickenshit rules'. Vulgar and strictly informal, it carries strong connotations of scorn and is best reserved for casual speech among people who tolerate profanity. Its vividness comes from compounding two blunt Anglo-Saxon elements — chicken (cowardice) and shit (worthlessness) — producing a word that simultaneously mocks fearfulness and dismisses pettiness, which has kept it popular in military and workplace vernacular for decades.
A cowardly or contemptibly timid person.
"Only a chickenshit would back out of the challenge now."
Countable and mildly deprecating when applied to a person.
Trivial, petty, or annoying matters; irritating busywork of little real importance (uncountable).
"Half of this job is just dealing with the daily chickenshit."
Always uncountable in this sense; often intensified with 'pure' or 'nothing but'.
Contemptibly petty, trivial, or cowardly (attributive).
"He quit over what he called the company's chickenshit policies."
Used almost exclusively attributively, directly before the noun it modifies.
The plural applies only to the 'cowardly person' sense; the uncountable 'trivial matters' sense does not pluralize.
"The boardroom was full of chickenshits afraid to voice a dissenting opinion."
Tom Wolfe made 'chickenshit' immortal in American letters with his account of test pilots who distinguished heroic 'flying' from the 'chickenshit' of paperwork — a word Lyndon B. Johnson was also famously fond of deploying.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chickenshit
Chickenshit is a compound of 'chicken', long used figuratively for a coward, and 'shit', a vulgar term for worthless or contemptible things; both elements trace back to Old English ('cicen' and 'scitan'). The compound emerged in colloquial American English in the early twentieth century, gaining wide currency during and after World War II through military usage. It belongs to a family of '-shit' compounds (such as 'bullshit') that flourished in the same era, and its figurative force rests on the much older metaphorical senses of its parts rather than any literal reference to poultry.
How chickenshit is actually used
Strongly informal to vulgar; avoided in formal writing and polite conversation. As an adjective it typically appears attributively before a noun (e.g., 'chickenshit rules'). Common in military, sports, and workplace registers where petty bureaucracy or timidity is being derided. Offensive strength is moderate among swear words but real — gauge your audience.
Easily confused with chickenshit
'Chicken' is a milder, more general term for a coward, whereas 'chickenshit' is vulgar and often carries an added note of contemptible pettiness rather than mere fearfulness.