"play chicken" meaning in English

See play chicken in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: plays chicken [present, singular, third-person], playing chicken [participle, present], played chicken [participle, past], played chicken [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} play chicken (third-person singular simple present plays chicken, present participle playing chicken, simple past and past participle played chicken)
  1. (idiomatic) As a risky test of courage, to drive two vehicles directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-play_chicken-en-verb-FZ95A7OS
  2. (informal, slang) To engage in a mutual challenge or threat, expecting the opponent to withdraw before an actual conflict or collision. Tags: informal, slang
    Sense id: en-play_chicken-en-verb-CzN2njBX Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 27 73 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 14 86 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 22 78

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays chicken",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing chicken",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played chicken",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played chicken",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play chicken (third-person singular simple present plays chicken, present participle playing chicken, simple past and past participle played chicken)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "As a risky test of courage, to drive two vehicles directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_chicken-en-verb-FZ95A7OS",
      "links": [
        [
          "risky",
          "risky"
        ],
        [
          "courage",
          "courage"
        ],
        [
          "drive",
          "drive"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "in order to",
          "in order to"
        ],
        [
          "swerve",
          "swerve"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) As a risky test of courage, to drive two vehicles directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 86",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 78",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in a mutual challenge or threat, expecting the opponent to withdraw before an actual conflict or collision."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_chicken-en-verb-CzN2njBX",
      "links": [
        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "challenge",
          "challenge"
        ],
        [
          "threat",
          "threat"
        ],
        [
          "expecting",
          "expecting"
        ],
        [
          "opponent",
          "opponent"
        ],
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "conflict",
          "conflict"
        ],
        [
          "collision",
          "collision"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, slang) To engage in a mutual challenge or threat, expecting the opponent to withdraw before an actual conflict or collision."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play chicken"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays chicken",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing chicken",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played chicken",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played chicken",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play chicken (third-person singular simple present plays chicken, present participle playing chicken, simple past and past participle played chicken)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "As a risky test of courage, to drive two vehicles directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "risky",
          "risky"
        ],
        [
          "courage",
          "courage"
        ],
        [
          "drive",
          "drive"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "in order to",
          "in order to"
        ],
        [
          "swerve",
          "swerve"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) As a risky test of courage, to drive two vehicles directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in a mutual challenge or threat, expecting the opponent to withdraw before an actual conflict or collision."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "challenge",
          "challenge"
        ],
        [
          "threat",
          "threat"
        ],
        [
          "expecting",
          "expecting"
        ],
        [
          "opponent",
          "opponent"
        ],
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "conflict",
          "conflict"
        ],
        [
          "collision",
          "collision"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, slang) To engage in a mutual challenge or threat, expecting the opponent to withdraw before an actual conflict or collision."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play chicken"
}

Download raw JSONL data for play chicken meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 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.