Dictionary

like a chicken with its head cut off en · ADP

Meanings

1. (informal) In a frantic, disorganized manner.
   • Ken played or essayed to play right field for a while, but he ran around like a chicken with its head off. 1911, Zane Grey, chapter 9, in The Young Pitcher:
   • Says one Pentagon arms-control expert: "Our setup was actually designed to act in time of general war like a chicken with its head cut off. The brain could be destroyed and the nervous system severed. Then the military muscles would just jerk in uncontrolled spasms." 1962 December 28, “Nation: New Fail-Safe”, in Time:
   • His idea of it was that he had been making a fool of himself, running around like a chicken with its head cut off—such was the simile that occurred to him. c. 1900, Jack London, To Build a Fire:
   • I've been running round like a chicken with its head cut off. 1920, Harold MacGrath, chapter 27, in The Drums Of Jeopardy:
   • Rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off would serve no purpose. 2003, Linda Lael Miller, Shotgun Bride, →ISBN, page 121:
   • That man... looks like a chicken with its head cut off! 2023 December 14 [2009], Kazune Kawahara, translated by Hana Allen, The Secret of Friendship, Seven Seas Entertainment, translation of 友だちの話 [Tomodachi no Hanashi], →ISBN, page 106:

Forms

Relateds

like a chicken with the pip · run around like a chicken with its head cut off

Translations (8)

de kopflos (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · ru как ку́рица с отру́бленной голово́й (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · cmn 像只没头苍蝇一样 (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · es como pollo sin cabeza (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · el σαν την άδικη κατάρα (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · fi kuin päätön kana (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · pl bez głowy (in a frantic, disorganized manner) · nl als een kip zonder kop (in a frantic, disorganized manner)