Word.ws English Dictionary

playing chicken

playing chicken is the present participle and gerund of play chicken.

Meaning of play chicken

Verb

play chicken (third-person singular simple present plays chicken, present participle playing chicken, simple past and past participle played chicken)

  1. (idiomatic) As a risky test of courage, to drive two vehicles directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first.
  2. (informal, slang) To engage in a mutual challenge or threat, expecting the opponent to withdraw before an actual conflict or collision.

Questions about playing chicken

What is playing chicken the present participle and gerund of?
Playing chicken is the present participle and gerund of play chicken.

Words near playing chicken in the dictionary

  1. playing by ear
  2. playing by the rules
  3. playing card
  4. playing cards
  5. playing cheat
  6. playing chicken
  7. playing Cupid
  8. playing dead
  9. playing dirty
  10. playing doctor
  11. playing down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing chicken (page history and authors); play chicken (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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