Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
hen-cackle en · NOUN
Meanings
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(countable, literally, uncountable) A loud, sharp, or broken sound made by a hen, especially after laying an egg.
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(broadly, countable, figuratively, slang, uncountable) A shrill, loud, or raucous laughter or chatter, typically associated with women.
Doubtless there is a wider application of the term since a mere hen-cackle, a trifle, seems to have been the origin of the application.
1941, Sidney John Baker, New Zealand Slang, A Dictionary of Colloquialisms, the First Comprehensive Survey Yet Made of Indigenous English Speech in this Country--from the Argot of Whaling Days to Children's Slang in the Twentieth Century, page 57:
Forms