pullet en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈpʊlɪt/ (UK)
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
From Middle English polet, pulet, from Anglo-Norman pullet, Old French poulet (“young chicken”); polette (“young hen”), from poule (“hen”), from Vulgar Latin pulla, feminine form of pullus. Doublet of poult. Compare also Middle English pulle. By surface analysis, pull(us) + -et.
Meanings
-
A young hen, especially one less than a year old.
“Mrs. Boast can’t have got all these from one hatching,” [Ma] said. “I do believe there’s not more than two cockerels among them.” “The Boasts have got such a head-start with chickens, likely they’re planning to eat friers this summer,” said Pa. “It may be she took a few cockerels out of this flock, looking on them as meat.” “Yes, and replaced them with pullets that will be layers,” Ma guessed. “It would be Mrs. Boast all over. A more generous woman never lived.”
1941, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little Town on the Prairie:They died not because the Pullets would not feed: but because the Devil foresaw their death, he contrived that abstinence in them.
1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.11:The dinner-hour being arrived, Black George carried her up a pullet, the squire himself [...] attending the door.
1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 588:he recommended that the patient [...] should be fed with chicken broth, and suggested that as all the poultry had gone to roost, Maggie would find a fat young pullet an easy capture.
1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 187:The writer complained that a fox had been the night before and killed three more of his pullets […].
1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 195:
- (slang) A spineless person; a coward.
- (obsolete, slang) A girl or young woman.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| pullets | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Hypernyms
Relateds
pullulate · poultry · birdlet · chick
Translations (45)
tyz cáy khướng (young hen) · it pollastra (young hen) · tzm ⵜⴰⵛⵉⵛⴰⵡⵜ (young hen) · lb Pëll (young hen) · eo kokidino (young hen) · bg пиле (young hen) · ota پلیچ (young hen) · ru моло́дка (young hen) · io hanyunino (young hen) · he פַּרְגִּית (young hen) · io hanyuno (young hen) · vi gà mái tơ (young hen) · shi takiyyawt (young hen) · ro puică (young hen) · el πουλάδα (young hen) · af jong hen (young hen) · de Hühnchen (young hen) · fi kananpoika (young hen) · ce меъ (young hen) · tr yarka (young hen) · ja 若いめんどり (young hen) · ca polla (young hen) · km មាន់ញីជំទង់ (young hen) · ar فَرُّوجَة (young hen) · sv unghöna (young hen) · kix vēushéu (young hen) · hy վառեկ (young hen) · az fərik (young hen) · fr poulette (young hen) · gl pola (young hen) · mk јарица (young hen) · tr piliç (young hen) · pt franga (young hen) · cmn 小母雞 /小母鸡 (young hen) · wa poyete (young hen) · nrf poulette (young hen) · ha sā̀garā (young hen) · es polla (young hen) · ko 어린 암탉 (young hen) · az fərə (young hen) · ru ку́рочка (young hen) · nci ichpōchtōtolin (young hen) · bg ярка (young hen) · hu jérce (young hen) · ka ვარია (young hen)