Question

Choose the correct meaning of the given phrase:
“A chicken hearted fellow”

a) A cruel person
b) A stone hearted man
c) A heart patient
d) A brave man
e) A timid fellow

Answer 1

Hint: A chicken is used for someone who gets scared easily. It is used both as an adjective and a verb. An example of a sentence is: He pretended to be very brave but turned out to be a chicken-hearted fellow when they asked him to a real match.

Complete answer:

As we already know, if you call someone a chicken, you are calling him a coward. It is used to mock someone.
It can be used as an adjective: Don’t be a chicken! It means you are mocking someone and calling him a chicken since he is scared of doing something.
It can be used as a verb: He chickened out when he saw that the player he was up against looked so strong. So he was too scared to fight him.
From the above examples, we can determine the answer as is given in the options. The correct answer is option e which is “a timid fellow”. A timid person is someone who is very shy and scared.
Option a is wrong because “chicken” is not used for cruel people.
Similarly, option b is wrong. A stone-hearted man is also a cruel man.
Option c talks about a heart patient. It means someone who has a problem or disease in his heart. It definitely does not mean someone who is scared. It is an incorrect option.
Option d is “a brave man”. This is the opposite of someone who you would call a chicken-hearted fellow. A chicken is not brave, it is a coward. It is also not the correct answer.

Note: In the given question, chicken does not refer to the animal which we call a chicken. It is used to refer to someone who acts like a chicken. Such phrases are abundantly used in the English language and students are advised to read and know such phrases.