Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also chicken crap, chickshit) insufficient, inadequate, of poor quality.

1938		E. Hemingway letter 5 May in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 467: The retreat from Mons [Belgium] was chickenshit alongside of this last show.
1940		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 564: Her lips are as pink as a rooster’s dink, / The hair on her pussy is brown, / Her tits hang loose like the balls on a goose, / She’s the belle of a chicken-shit town.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 146: Chicken crap, huh, a little straight.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 205: I believe you turning into a chickenshit nigger lover.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 100: Is this Simms th’ only chickenshit officer here or are all of them that way?
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 29: That chickenshit thing I had going up there in Lynn.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 176: Chickshit bastard, ain’t he?
1985		‘Thommo’ Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 25: CHICKEN SHIT — Insignificant, frivolous.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 22: I wouldn’t even bother to handle your chickenshit bets if I didn’t like you.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 275: Snapper pleaded out to a chickenshit manslaughter.
2000		P. Cornwell Last Precinct 43: They can fire me. Or [...] bury me in some chicken-shit department like audio-visual.

2. cowardly, fearful.

1940		E. Hemingway in Baker Sel. Letters c.4–11 Feb. (1981) 501: I am a very chickenshit military man.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 7: What’s the matter? You going chickenshit?
1957		Kerouac letter 24 June in Charters II (1999) 46: I wouldnt be surprised if Viking Press got chickenshit about HOWL being banned and put off the publication of my book.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 58: Them goddamn Mex’s is all chicken shit.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 262: You think I’m chickenshit, don’t you?
1985		‘Thommo’ Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 25: CHICKEN SHIT — cowardly.
1986		S. King It (1987) 677: You honky chickenshit bastard!
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 127: ‘[Y]ou know how chickenshit the DA’s office is getting about search warrants’.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 147: He tried to get me busted. That’s not part of the game, it’s chickenshit.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] Everyone was too chicken-shit to break out for the night.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘[Y]ou were too greedy or chickenshit to put Joey Bello in a cage’.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 85: Am I just too chickenshit to handle that much cash? Yes. No. Where'd all this stupid pride come from?

3. (also chicken poo-poo) weak.

1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 252: Chicken shit bastard!
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 194: You’ll get lots of lip, but don’t argue. Be chickenshit. Bring it to me.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 89: Any independent making a pitch for Angel membership would be rejected as ‘corny and chickenshit’ if he showed up in leather.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 30: I seriously mulled the odds that Phil would test out as a chicken-poo poo amnesiac.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 191: This chickenshit staff sergeant [...] making us pick up cigarette butts.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 231: I’ma send you a hell the way I send you little chickenshit Olympic.

4. petty.

1957		J. Blake ‘Day of the Alligator’ in Algren Lonesome Monsters (1963) 133: On a chicken-shit job like this he lets me horse around.
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 159: Here we go again, around the chickenshitberry bush.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 383: He [...] lost a good bust in court on a chickenshit technicality.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 108: That’s real chickenshit, Simpson.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 50: He was an E-7 with twenty-six years in service who’d been busted in rank stateside more than once for chickenshit infractions.