Word.ws English Dictionary

chicken run

chicken run noun: an enclosed area, attached to a chicken coop, in which poultry are allowed to run around and peck.

Noun

chicken run (plural chicken runs)

  1. An enclosed area, attached to a chicken coop, in which poultry are allowed to run around and peck.
    Synonyms:
    chicken pen, chickenyard, chookyard
  2. (historical, slang) The act of "gapping it", i.e. emigrating from Rhodesia as a white inhabitant during the country's transition to independence.
    • By 1979, thousands had 'gapped it', or taken the 'chicken run', as emigration was derisively known […]2019, David Kenrick, Decolonisation, Identity and Nation in Rhodesia, 1964-1979, page 2

Synonyms of chicken run

Forms of chicken run

pluralchicken runs

Questions about chicken run

What does chicken run mean?
Chicken run means an enclosed area, attached to a chicken coop, in which poultry are allowed to run around and peck.
What part of speech is chicken run?
Chicken run is a noun.
What is the plural of chicken run?
The plural of chicken run is chicken runs.

Words near chicken run in the dictionary

  1. chicken pox party
  2. chicken poxes
  3. chicken rice
  4. chicken roll
  5. chicken rolls
  6. chicken run
  7. chicken runs
  8. chicken salad
  9. chicken salad air
  10. chicken salads
  11. chicken salt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chicken run (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chicken run.wav.

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