"no spring chicken" meaning in English

See no spring chicken in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From the description of a young person as a spring chicken. Head templates: {{en-noun|-|head=no spring chicken}} no spring chicken (uncountable)
  1. (informal, litotes) Said of a person who is no longer particularly young. Tags: informal, uncountable Related terms: long in the tooth, of a certain age, oldster, old person (alt: contextually synonymous when degree of litotes is high), over the hill Translations (person who is no longer particularly young): ei mikään poikanen [masculine] (Finnish), ei mikään tyttönen [feminine] (Finnish), plus tout jeune (French), plus de la première jeunesse (French), kein junger Hüpfer (German), nem mai gyerek (Hungarian), mieć swoje lata [imperfective] (Polish), желторотый юне́ц (želtorotyj junéc) (Russian), talludito (Spanish)
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              118,
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          "text": "They expect me to carry this box myself while climbing the stairs to the seventh floor? I don't know about that — I'm no spring chicken.",
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              28,
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          "ref": "1908, Upton Sinclair, chapter 5, in The Money Changers:",
          "text": "You know the world. You are no spring chicken.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
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              126,
              143
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          "ref": "1943 May 10, “The Pot Boils”, in Time:",
          "text": "A real candidate arose to challenge dapper Robert Rice (\"Buncombe Bob\") Reynolds, aging coxcomb of the Senate. The candidate, no spring chicken himself: tall, lean Clyde Roark Hoey (pronounced Hooey), 65, one of the most popular Governors the state ever had.",
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            [
              73,
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1981 November 23, “Newest Sub, Oldest Sailor”, in Time:",
          "text": "He doubtless hoped for a sympathetic ruling from President Reagan, at 70 no spring chicken himself.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "Said of a person who is no longer particularly young."
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, litotes) Said of a person who is no longer particularly young."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "long in the tooth"
        },
        {
          "word": "of a certain age"
        },
        {
          "word": "oldster"
        },
        {
          "alt": "contextually synonymous when degree of litotes is high",
          "word": "old person"
        },
        {
          "word": "over the hill"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ei mikään poikanen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "ei mikään tyttönen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "word": "plus tout jeune"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "word": "plus de la première jeunesse"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "word": "kein junger Hüpfer"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "lang_code": "hu",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "word": "nem mai gyerek"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "mieć swoje lata"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "želtorotyj junéc",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "word": "желторотый юне́ц"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
          "word": "talludito"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "no spring chicken"
}
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "word": "long in the tooth"
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      "word": "of a certain age"
    },
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      "word": "oldster"
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      "alt": "contextually synonymous when degree of litotes is high",
      "word": "old person"
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        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
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        "Terms with French translations",
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          "type": "example"
        },
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              28,
              45
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            [
              126,
              143
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1943 May 10, “The Pot Boils”, in Time:",
          "text": "A real candidate arose to challenge dapper Robert Rice (\"Buncombe Bob\") Reynolds, aging coxcomb of the Senate. The candidate, no spring chicken himself: tall, lean Clyde Roark Hoey (pronounced Hooey), 65, one of the most popular Governors the state ever had.",
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            [
              73,
              90
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          "text": "He doubtless hoped for a sympathetic ruling from President Reagan, at 70 no spring chicken himself.",
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        "Said of a person who is no longer particularly young."
      ],
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        "(informal, litotes) Said of a person who is no longer particularly young."
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ei mikään poikanen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "ei mikään tyttönen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "word": "plus tout jeune"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "word": "plus de la première jeunesse"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "word": "kein junger Hüpfer"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "word": "nem mai gyerek"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "mieć swoje lata"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "želtorotyj junéc",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "word": "желторотый юне́ц"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "person who is no longer particularly young",
      "word": "talludito"
    }
  ],
  "word": "no spring chicken"
}

Download raw JSONL data for no spring chicken meaning in English (3.7kB)

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: informal, litotes",
  "path": [
    "no spring chicken"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "no spring chicken",
  "trace": ""
}

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: informal, litotes",
  "path": [
    "no spring chicken"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "no spring chicken",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (e2469cc and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.