chicken run

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

chicken run (plural chicken runs)

1. An enclosed area, attached to a chicken coop, in which poultry are allowed to run around and peck.

   Synonyms: chicken pen, chickenyard, chookyard

2. (slang, historical) The act of "gapping it", i.e. emigrating from Rhodesia as a white inhabitant during the country's transition to independence.
   • 2019, David Kenrick, Decolonisation, Identity and Nation in Rhodesia, 1964-1979, page 2:

     By 1979, thousands had 'gapped it', or taken the 'chicken run', as emigration was derisively known […]

Translations

enclosed area for poultry

• Dutch: kippenren (nl) f
• Finnish: kanatarha
• German: Hühnerhof m, Auslauf für Hühner m, Hühnerauslauf (de) m, Hühnergehege (de) n, Hühnerpferch m
• Swedish: hönsgård (sv) c
• Volapük: gokayad