Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also chicken change) small change; occas. attrib.

1836		D. Crockett Exploits and Adventures 78: I stood looking on, seeing him pick up the chicken feed from the green horns.
1897		F.H. Carruth Voyage of the Rattletrap 145: That was simply his humorous way of saying that all coins under a dime are fit only for chicken-feed.
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 298: chicken feed, n. Small change, nickels and dimes.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Poet and the Peasant’ in Strictly Business (1915) 79: Run somewhere and get this changed for me. I’m mighty nigh out of chicken feed.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 177: He gets the money in cash, twenty-five one-thousand-dollar bills, an’ the chicken feed for the expenses.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 312: All that chicken feed [...] I felt like picking up the coins and chucking them out of the window.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 143: Put down dat chicken-change quarter you got in yo’ hand.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 180: I only had a few odd bits of chicken feed left in my pocket.
1952		L. Lariar Day I Died 130: ‘A big bundle of cabbage, Coyle,’ he said. ‘From what I see of Miami, this is chicken feed,’ Coyle said.
1954		R. Mais Brother Man (1966) 67: Ah wish it was paper money we was handlin’. Them half-crown pieces feels like chicken-feed.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 794: chicken feed – Small change.
1967		K. Tennant Tell Morning This 19: ‘[A] couple of quid? Girls like you, that’s only chicken feed’.
1968		(con. mid–late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 38: Pockets loaded with what he calls ‘chicken feed’; pint of small coins.

2. (also chicken-dribble) derisorily small amounts of money or anything else; occas. attrib.

1903		Bluefield Daily Tel. (WV) 8 Jan. 2/1: Money has more synonyms than any word in the English language [...] There is in use coin, plunks, plasters, soap, rocks, dust, dough, ducats, dingbats, pewter, needful, stuff, collat, rags, shekels, wad, roll, tin, long green, grease, bones, balsam, chicken feet [sic], rhino, brass, gold and on and on.
1910		Wodehouse Gentleman of Leisure Ch. xxii: But dose was little, dinky t’ings. Of course, youse wouldn’t stand fer swipin’ chicken-feed like dem.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 71: There’ll be something to-night that’ll make that bunch look like chicken-feed.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 238: Hugh was obviously small money, and Allen had no time to waste on chicken-feed.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘Here’s the money [...] Five grand, cash’ [...] ‘Chicken feed,’ I said.
1935		N. Algren Somebody in Boots 139: I’ll never stand up for Jesus. I’d ruther go to jail fer a week then sing one of them chicken-dribble songs. [Ibid.] 247: Besides it’s only chicken-dribble comparin’ to what we could get. [...] Me an’ ol’ Olin’d make Nub look like chicken dribble [...] six-bits – that’s lots more’n jest chicken dribble.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 424: In Pawtucket, or even in Providence, this would have been important money, but in New York it was chicken feed.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats viii: Sorry, George. It was chicken-feed. Apart from bringing down that Eyetie, it wasn’t worth watching.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 121: ‘You got six hundred and fifty bucks,’ Wad said nastily. [...] ‘Chicken feed,’ Dr Verringer said. ‘I told you my rates had gone up.’.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 285–6: The Great Curse in the Book of Deuteronomy is chicken feed compared with what Copper Baldwin wished on Sam Yudenow.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 59: When he works, he’s paid chickenfeed.
1976		R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 89: You and your eighty quid! Just chicken feed.
1986		T. Philbin Under Cover 210: No one with a big operation is going to risk a burglary charge for what amounts to chicken feed.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 38: Old men betting on young boys to punch themselves half to death for chicken feed.
2011		‘Jack Tunney’ Split Decision [ebook] My fee was chickenfeed [...] The real dough in a fix was the bets.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 71: They bet in ‘chicken feed’, that is, they bet ‘very small’.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 213: $130,000 is chickenfeed in the context of the stock market.

3. (US) nonsense, rubbish.

1934

O. Strange Sudden 78: ‘Bah! Chicken-feed,’ King sneered.