chicken feed
small or insignificant amounts of money
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The overall lack of doctors in Europe is about 150,000 people and over 2 million worldwide. A reasonable question can be raised: is there any future for health care in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries in the current situation when there is lack of qualified medical vacancies globally, while domestic medical workers are paid CHICKEN FEED?
(ML Market Leader)
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ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson said the £250,000-a-year pay for his column in the Daily Telegraph was CHICKEN FEED
(BBC News)
(ML Market Leader)
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ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson said the £250,000-a-year pay for his column in the Daily Telegraph was CHICKEN FEED
(BBC News)
Did you
know?
chicken feed
slang phrase
- a small amount of anything, especially of money
(McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs)
Chicken feed refers to the fact that chickens can be fed corn and grains that are too small for other uses. And speaking of being useful, the chicken is a popular subject when it comes to idioms. Here are six more chicken phrases in common usage:
1. chicken out - to manage to get out of something, usually because of fear or cowardice (We wanted to go on the roller coaster, but David chickened out.)
2. chickens come home to roost - a proverb meaning that you have to face the consequences of your mistakes or bad deeds (Bob bought lots of expensive cars and now with the recession the chickens are coming home to roost.)
3. count your chickens before they hatch - to plan how to utilize good results of something before those results have occurred (If I were you, I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch.)
4. go to bed with the chickens - to go to bed at sundown; at the same time that chickens go to sleep (Jessica always goes to bed with the chickens and then gets up early.)
5. spring chicken - a person well past youth; an old person (Dad is no spring chicken, but he's still very active.)
6. run around like a chicken with its head cut off - to be in a state of chaos (What a meeting! Everyone was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.)
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SYNONYMS
peanuts, a drop in the bucket, a pittance, small potatoes, scraps
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"People in third-world countries are paid chicken feed."
slang phrase
- a small amount of anything, especially of money
(McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs)
Chicken feed refers to the fact that chickens can be fed corn and grains that are too small for other uses. And speaking of being useful, the chicken is a popular subject when it comes to idioms. Here are six more chicken phrases in common usage:
1. chicken out - to manage to get out of something, usually because of fear or cowardice (We wanted to go on the roller coaster, but David chickened out.)
2. chickens come home to roost - a proverb meaning that you have to face the consequences of your mistakes or bad deeds (Bob bought lots of expensive cars and now with the recession the chickens are coming home to roost.)
3. count your chickens before they hatch - to plan how to utilize good results of something before those results have occurred (If I were you, I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch.)
4. go to bed with the chickens - to go to bed at sundown; at the same time that chickens go to sleep (Jessica always goes to bed with the chickens and then gets up early.)
5. spring chicken - a person well past youth; an old person (Dad is no spring chicken, but he's still very active.)
6. run around like a chicken with its head cut off - to be in a state of chaos (What a meeting! Everyone was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.)
---
SYNONYMS
peanuts, a drop in the bucket, a pittance, small potatoes, scraps
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"People in third-world countries are paid chicken feed."
