chick
chick — 名詞
1. A young bird that has recently hatched from its egg; the word is most often used
小雞
剛孵出的幼鳥，尤指小雞
A young bird that has recently hatched from its egg; the word is most often used for the babies of chickens and other farm birds.
Farmer Wu gently picked up the yellow chick and placed it under the heat lamp.
吳農夫輕輕撿起那隻黃色小雞，將牠放到保溫燈下。
collocation: chick + heat lamp (farm setting)
Mrs. Chen's class watched the hen leading her chicks across the farmyard.
陳老師的班上學生觀看母雞領著小雞穿過農場庭院。
collocation: hen + her chicks (family grouping)
The mother robin dropped a worm into the open beak of her hungriest chick.
母知更鳥將一條蟲子丟進最小那隻雛鳥張開的嘴裡。
Last spring, the old speckled hen hatched ten fluffy chicks in the barn.
去年春天，那隻老花母雞在穀倉裡孵出了十隻毛茸茸的小雞。
Each chick huddles under its mother's feathers to stay warm during cold nights.
每隻小雞在寒冷夜晚都緊靠在母雞羽毛下取暖。
用法筆記
Often used together with 'hen' (the mother) in farm-related contexts. The possessive pairing 'mother hen and her chicks' is a common set phrase.
2. A word that describes a young female adult; many people now view it as insulting
小妞
對年輕女性帶貶抑意味的俗稱
A word that describes a young female adult; many people now view it as insulting or degrading. The safest choice is to avoid it and say 'young woman' or address the person by name.
The newspaper article warned office workers not to use the word 'chick' at work.
那篇報紙文章告誡上班族不要在職場使用 chick 這個字。
meta-discourse: discussing the word's appropriateness
Aunt Rosa told her nephew that calling women chicks is disrespectful and old-fashioned.
Rosa 阿姨告訴姪子，稱女性為 chicks 既不尊重又老派。
register warning: disrespectful register
The HR manager said calling a female colleague a chick violates company policy.
人事經理說，稱女同事為 chick 違反了公司政策。
During the workshop, the speaker discussed why the term 'chick' upsets so many women.
在研討會上，講者探討了 chick 這個詞為何讓許多女性感到反感。
A staff notice reminded everyone that 'chick' is not okay for addressing colleagues.
一份員工公告提醒大家，用「小妞」來稱呼同事並不恰當。
- young woman
neutral and respectful; always a safe alternative
- girl
can be neutral for children but may sound patronizing for adult women depending on context
- lady
polite and formal, though can feel old-fashioned in some situations
用法筆記
Frequently appears in fixed compound nouns such as 'chick flick' (a film intended mainly for women) and 'chick lit' (novels aimed at women readers), where the offensive connotation is weaker or neutralized by genre-label convention.